British litter-pickers have bagged gold in the inaugural Spogomi World Cup after sifting through nearly 60 kilograms of trash in the Japanese capital to win the first contest of its kind.

Sarah Parry and brothers Alexander and Jonathan Winship fended off rivals from 20 other nations to lift the cup – named after a combination of “sport” and “gomi”, the Japanese word for rubbish – after a gruelling hunt around the streets of Tokyo on Wednesday.

Equipped with protective gloves, metal tongs and rubbish bags, each of the teams taking part was allocated an area of five square kilometres, or nearly two square miles, in the bustling Shibuya district to gather as much rubbish as possible.

Contestants were allocated two 45 minute sessions to scour the streets for plastic, cigarette butts and other trash, and another 20 minutes to sort the debris into different categories to be recycled.

Points were awarded according to the volume and type of rubbish collected. Smaller items, such as cigarette butts, scored highly.

The litter-pickers were closely monitored by referees to make sure that they did not raid existing rubbish bins or take trash from private property.

The British team, named The North Will Rise Again, gathered 126.26 lbs (57kgs) in their allotted time, earning 9,046.1 points.

The trio overcame the pre-tournament favourites from France, whose three contestants all work in the refuse collection industry.

Team captain Ms Parry, a long-distance runner who recently completed her 30th marathon, said her sporting experience had been the difference. The Winship brothers are also keen sportsmen, she said.

“A lot of the other teams maybe were more ecological and less sport, and we are probably the opposite”, 28-year-old Ms Parry said. “But we have taken so much away about how much we need to clean up our oceans and reduce litter.”

Rubbish was hard to find

Each team had to earn the right to represent their country in Tokyo by winning national competitions.

The South African team complained that it was more difficult to find rubbish on the clean streets of Tokyo than it had been during their qualifying event in Durban.

The North Will Rise Again’s own journey to the Japanese capital saw it beat 19 other teams during the UK national heats on Hackney Marshes in August.

Spogomi was first dreamed up 15 years ago by Kenichi Mamitsuka, a Japanese runner who started to pick up rubbish on his morning jogs and believed that collecting waste could become a competitive sport that also benefited the environment.

In total, the 21 teams gathered 1,208lbs (547 kgs) of waste from the streets of Tokyo. 

Organisers hope to expand the Spogomi competition to 50 countries by 2030 and the next World Cup has already been scheduled for Tokyo in 2025.