Estonians win wife-carrying championships

The Associated Press

TAMPERE, Finland -- Leaping over timber and wading through waist-high water, an Estonian couple won the wife-carrying world championships Saturday, for the third straight year.

Egle Soll carried Margo Uusorg over the 760-foot course in just over a minute, beating 22 couples from six countries, including Britain, the United States, Ireland and Finland.

Margo Uusorg's younger brother, Madis, and his partner Ivi Loomets finished second in the competition before 8,000 spectators in the town of Sonkajarvi, Finland.

The contestants don't have be husband and wife -- any man and woman can compete.

The Estonians introduced the efficient style of carrying their partners upside down over their backs in 1998 and have won every contest since.

According to local legend, the contest dates back to the 1800s when a local bully challenged other men in the village to prove their worth by carrying their wives through a course.

The contest was revived in this new form in 1992 and has been running continuously since.

Top contestants train assiduously and optimal combinations of strong man-lightweight woman are sought. The women have to weigh at least 108 pounds or wear backpacks that bring them up to that weight.

Estonian dominance has been such, that organizers set up a separate "classic" category with stricter rules, requiring that the woman be carried piggyback and that she be marreid to her carrier.

The classic category also was won by an Estonian couple, Jaanus and Anneli Undrest, with a time of 1 minute, 12.27 seconds.

The popularity of wife-carrying has surprised the organizers. "At first we developed this just as a show number for the local fair and thought we'd only use it for a couple of years. But it was so popular that we've kept it going," said municipal director Simo Mkinen.