Mason Moore & Vaughan Moore | 21 February 2023

AN ‘Aussie legend’ from Murwillumbah in New South Wales, Australia, has been named the senior winner of Hinckley’s famed Pancake Race today (Tuesday, 21 February).

Aussie tourist, Tess Sneddon, who is visiting her family on a holiday trip to Hinckley, entered into the race after her aunty and uncle suggested that she enter with her three friends, who also made the trip across the other side of the world with her.

The group of four quickly quipped up the tongue-in-cheek group name of “The Aussie Legends” on the spot when registering their entry in to the race yesterday, but Tess said they were determined to win, to live up to them being dubbed ‘legends’.

She entered into the heat with the team, but proceeded to race through the final few heats, finally being named ‘senior winner’ as an individual respectively.

Tess’ victory for Oz marks one of the first known international wins of the race, and another accolade in itself of being the first female winner of the 2020s respectively.

Speaking to the Hinckley Free Press, she said: “I’m on my holiday, and I’m staying with my aunty and uncle who live in town. They said I should enter into the pancake race whilst I’m over here, so I did. It was only yesterday afternoon that I signed up.

“It was so good and a bit of fun. I’ll definitely have to be back for the next one as the returning champ.

“Our team initially chose ‘Aussie Legends’ as the team name as a joke, but we had to win it to stick to the name and make it a reality.

“I enjoyed seeing the entrants who were dressed up as pancakes – that was fun.”

In recent years, the race has started to attract international audiences. Last year, a family from Hong Kong who were staying in Leicester at the time made a trip down to Hinckley from the city centre to spectate at the locally-famed Shrove Tuesday event.