An American daredevil defied health and safety warnings to win the annual Cheese Rolling competition. Kenny Rackers, 27, travelled more than 4,000 miles from Colorado Springs to a steep hill in Gloucestershire to take part in the world-famous event. The estate agent, who wore a US stars and stripes morph suit, had travelled to Britain to compete in the race having seen previous events on the television.

"I came over specially for this and I did what I had to do to win," he said afterwards.

"It feels great, I trained a long time for this and got hurt on the hill practising. I came three days early and I took a bad spill, but I came to win and that's what I did.

"I came 3,000 or 4,000 miles just for this race. I put it on my bucket list and today it was to win and that's what I did."

Rebel cheese rollers staged their own unofficial event after health and safety fears caused the official competition to be cancelled in 2010. Usually an 8lb piece of Double Gloucester is chased 200 metres down Cooper's Hill at Brockworth, Gloucester, but this year organisers replaced the cheese with a lightweight foam version.

Rackers won the opening race. Australian traveller Caleb Stalder claimed the second. Student Lucy Townsend, 16, from Brockworth, won the women's race for the second consecutive year.

Proudly showing off a graze to her stomach, she added: "I didn't hurt myself last year. "It is sore. I'm going to have to come back every year."

Local Ryan Fairley, 23, from Brockworth, won the third men's race – the first time he has claimed a cheese.

Fairley, a builder, said: "It feels good to have won. I've raced about six times but this is my first official win.

"It was brilliant and I just love the feeling of getting hit hard, love it, and I've got the cheese to prove it."

But Fairley confessed: "I don't even like cheese to be honest with you – a bit of cheese on toast won't go amiss.

"It's a Brockworth tradition and I'll do it when I'm 30 years of age, it doesn't bother me.

"No-one's going to stop us doing it, no matter what. I'm a Brockworth lad and I'm winning it and I'm not going to stop now."

The fourth men's race was won by Tomoaki Tanaka, 39, from Japan, who dressed as a ninja to race down the hill.

The final race was marred by an injury to a competitor who injured his ankle falling over.

The unusual event has been celebrated for centuries and is thought to have its roots in a heathen festival to celebrate the return of spring.

The official event was cancelled after more than 15,000 people turned up as spectators to watch the 2009 competition.

Since then it has been held unofficially with the police keeping a watchful eye.

This year, Gloucestershire police warned those who could be deemed "organisers" of the event – including Double Gloucester 86-year-old cheese maker Diana Smart – that they could attract legal liability.

A police spokeswoman said: "We felt, and still feel, that it is important that those who, by law, could be constituted as organisers of the event are aware of the responsibilities that come with it, so that they can make an informed decision about their participation.

"The same information was given to others who could be deemed as 'organisers'."