The European Tram Driving Championship is even better than it sounds

Forget the Premier League, forget the PGA Championship and everything in between – there was only one thing happening in the world of sport over the weekend that we were really interested in.

Social media users have been busy over the last few days tweeting about the European Tram Driving Championship, which is just as ridiculous and as brilliant as it sounds.

People turned out to cheer on their home countries in the yearly tournament, which took place on Saturday in Leipzig.

If you’ve never heard of it before (and to be fair, we definitely hadn't) it’s a wacky celebration of the best talent in the tram world.

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Rather than testing to find the most reliable and safest driver in Europe, which let’s be honest would probably be incredibly boring, the organisers instead tested out their nerve and skill with a series of quirky trials.

One challenge saw the contestants from each country tasked with braking at exactly the right moment in order to push a pool cue and knock a ball out into a landing zone in order to win points.

Another saw a driver attempt to time an emergency stop while going handsfree, with the accuracy of the stops in relation to markers recorded and compared to other participants.

There was also a bowling style round, which saw teams attempt to knock over pins by driving into huge exercise balls.

TRAM-EM 2022 Leipzig - englishwww.youtube.com

The event was live streamed on the Tram-Em YouTube, and social media users like @misharipov were also on hand to pick out some of the highlights.

What were some of the biggest moments from the sporting event of the year? Berlin’s team managed to pull off the most satisfying perfect arrival in a landing zone, while another team crashed into a blockade after messing up an emergency stop.

After five hours of hard-fought competition, Mikael Gustafsson from Stockholm was named the best driver in 2022, while the team from Hannover won the best team award.

It's exactly the kind of sporting event we can really get behind – and we promise we’ll never get on a tram again without considering the incredible skill of the drivers.

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