EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Wind gusts and frigid temperatures may have kept the crowd size low, but it may also have helped Pamela Bolivar repeat as the International Pancake Race winner.
Bolivar led from start to finish, leaning in to the first turn at Fifth Street down Kansas Avenue and then gliding to her left down Lincoln Avenue with a stiff breeze at her back.
Tayana Miller turned the corner just behind Bolivar, but the defending champion continued to outpace the field, and with the stiff breeze cruised to victory.
Bolivar had her foot wrapped up in the finish line tape after completing the race and took a hard fall on the brick street. She was taken to the nearby Seward County EMS ambulance, and after a few minutes was able to rejoin the festivities and head to the Shriving Service at the First United Methodist Church where she was crowned the winner and her time of 1:03.52 was announced.
Bolivar breezed to a win over her British counterpart, Eloise Kramer, who turned in a time of 1:07.16.
Bolivar won one of the most competitive races a year ago when she edged out Olney’s Kaisa Larkas by one-third of a second, 1:03.03 to 1:03.37.
Kramer was a repeat winner in Olney after having won the 2023 international race over Liberal’s Isabelle Sullenger.
“It was good, it was fun,” Bolivar said on her walk to the Shriving Service. “I feel good. I gave it all I got. The wind helped a lot. It pushed me to the end. I just didn’t want to look back in case it was a closer race. I hope I broke the record, but if I didn’t do as good as last year there is always next year.”
Miller finished second, but she said she would give it another try.
“I think it’s a honor to run,” Miller said. “I know that I can always come back and keep pushing. I prepared last minute for this. It’s really something.”
Miller trailed Bolivar from the moment they both turned down Fifth Street and back onto Lincoln Avenue.
“I was trying to pace up with her but also trying to maintain my breathing and my form,” Miller said.
But there was that moment when Miller knew Bolivar was going to win.
“Once we came off that first corner, she was full force bolting it,” Miller said. “I was like, ‘Ok, I can try it.’ But then I was like, ‘There’s no way.’”
The race was the 76th friendly competition between the women of Liberal and Olney, England where the race began in 1445.
Lore has it a woman in Olney was cooking a pancake prior to the Shriving service when the church bell started to ring. Not wanting to be late, she headed off to church carrying her skillet in hand with the pancake still cooking. It soon became an annual event, and when R.J. Leete and the Liberal Jaycees found out about the event, they asked if Olney would be interested in a little friendly competition from America. The English agreed, and the international competition began in 1950.
Liberal now has a 42-31 lead over their English counterparts, and three races were called a draw for a variety of reasons, ranging from faulty time equipment to a BBC television truck blocking the finish line in Olney.
The wind and frigid temperatures kept several spectators away, but the kids races still took place, and the Men’s Pacer Race returned to the tradition of carrying the women’s jackets to the finish line.
That was helpful this year with the frigid breeze.
