Two months after China’s elite athletes dazzled the world at the Beijing Olympics, the sporting prowess of its 900 million peasant farmers is getting its turn in the spotlight this week at China’s 6th National Peasant Games.

Crouching at a starting line in a modern running outfit and trainers, Li Quanquan would look just like an Olympic athlete if not for the peasant-style bamboo carrying stick over her shoulders.

With baskets full of fake rice seedlings dangling from either side of the pole, she sprints down a track, then halts to “plant” each one in a simulated paddy field in one of the more bizarre races ever held in a large stadium.