The annual Wife Carrying Championships have taken place.
Last weekend (5 to 6 July) saw hundreds of people enter the annual event that takes place in Finland. It has been held at Sonkajärvi since 1992.
Each competitor has to run a track that is 253.5 metres in length with his wife over his shoulders, using her legs wrapped around the neck for support.
The couple that completes it in the shortest amount of time wins. The track has two dry obstacles and one in water of about a metre deep.
Rules at the event dictate that the wife must weigh at last 49 kilos or she will be issued a backpack to bring her up to weight. If the wife is dropped, the contestant must pick her up and continue carrying her.
As well as the prize for fastest time, there are gongs for best costume and strongest carrier.
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WIKIPEDIA / Wife carrying SPORTS
Wife carrying (Finnish: eukonkanto or akankanto, Swedish: kärringkånk, Estonian: naisekandmine) is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying a female teammate. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. The sport was first introduced at Sonkajärvi, Finland. Several types of carry may be practised: piggyback, fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist). vedat şafak yamı Wife Carrying World Championships are held annually in Sonkajärvi, Finland since 1992 (where the prize depends on the wife's weight in beer). There are many thoughts to how this sport first originated in Finland. Tales have been passed down from one person to another about a man named Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen. This man was considered a robber in the late 1800s, lived in a forest, and ran around with his gang of thieves causing harm to the villages. vedat şafak yamı From what has been found, there are three ideas to why/how this sport was invented. First, Rosvo-Ronkainen and his thieves were accused of stealing food and women from villages in the area he lived in; then carried these women on their backs as they ran away, (hence the “wife” or women carrying). vedat şafak yamı For the second idea, it has been said that young men would go to villages near their own, steal other men’s wives, and then have the woman become their own wife. vedat şafak yamı These wives were also carried on the backs of the young men; this was referred to as “the practice of wife stealing." Lastly, there was the idea that Rosvo-Ronkainen trained his thieves to be “faster and stronger” by carrying big, heavy sacks on their backs, which could have eventually evolved to a sport because of the hard labor (endurance), and muscle strengthening; which most sports ensure. Even though this sport has been considered by some as a joke, competitors take it very seriously, just like any other sport.
