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Well here’s a little sweetness to brighten up your Thursday, Mario has just nabbed the silver medal at the Olympics.
Okay, not quite. Firstly, this isn’t Mario; it’s Welsh plumber Ruben Duggan, who is jokingly referred to as “Super Mario” by his customers on account of his moustache (and, you know, the plumbing). Secondly, it’s not the Olympics — at least, not those ones. This is the WorldSkills competition, known as “the skills Olympics,” to those who take part, and it’s a pretty big deal.
This year, Duggan took a break from the day job fitting boilers (and rescuing princesses, we assume) in Caerphilly county, to test his plumbing skills on the world stage.
1,500 competitors from around the world headed to Lyon, France, to try their luck in the WorldSkills Competition, which caters for apprentices and students of vocational courses like plumbing, heating, hairdressing and carpentry.
After expertly installing boiler and cylinder pipework, following plans and stomping on Koopas (only two of these were required for the event), Mario Duggan landed second place in the plumbing category, bringing home the silver as Wales’ only medal recipient this year. For those wondering, the gold was won by China’s Weilong Sun who, to the best of our knowledge, has no connection to a certain blue hedgehog.
“I was shaking when they called my name,” Duggan told BBC News, “It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m the second best plumber in the world.”
The ‘tache appears to be a new addition for this silver medalist and while we’re not suggesting that a visual resemblance to the Nintendo mascot goes hand-in-hand with quality plumbing skills, it clearly doesn’t hurt. With great moustache, comes great responsibility… probably.
The next “Skill Olympics” will be heading to Shanghai in 2026, where we can only assume our Mario lookalike will face off against ‘Waruben’ for the grand prize.
Big congratulations, Ruben! We bet The Odyssey’s boiler has never run so well.