World Wife-Carrying Championship
Travel to the strange akankanto festival in Sonkajärvi, Finland
For a truly bizarre sporting contest in July 2007, head 200km north of Helsinki to watch Estonian Margo Uusorg (or Dennis Rodman) and his lady on an obstacle course.
The 2007 World Wife-Carrying (or akankanto) Championship takes place on July 7th this year, and couples from all over the world (but mainly Finland and Estonia) will be trying to beat the mighty Margo Uusorg in the Finnish town of Sonkajärvi. Many have tried in the past – including NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman – but few have succeeded.
As a bizarre sporting contest, it’s fairly hard to beat, and although it started as a joke, it’s taken with the same sort of semi-seriousness that can be applied to a game of pool in a pub, or Monopoly at home – everyone pretends it’s a bit of fun, but doesn’t want to lose either.
Wife-Carrying Strategy and Positions
The basic premise, as the title suggests, is for a strapping young man to carry his wife over an obstacle course. However, there are plenty of complexities, strategies and tactics that may not be immediately apparent.
The main one is what position is best to carry the unfortunate lady in. Do they opt for the straight fireman’s lift, the piggy-back or Estonian-style (where the wife holds onto her husband’s waist, upside down, with her legs over his shoulders.
Wife-Carrying Rules
There are, naturally, rules – this isn’t Nam you know. The only equipment that the carrier is allowed is a belt, and there are 15 second time penalties for every time the wife is dropped. And, in case anyone thought they could steal an advantage by choosing to heave a Size Zero waif over the 250 track of water, sand and fences, the minimum weight for any wife is 49 kilograms. Any found dieting and weighing less than that are given a heavy rucksack to strap on in order to make up the difference. And carrying a wife AND a backpack is a little too awkward to contemplate. That said, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to be choosing a hefty-framed lady to lug either.
Wife-Carrying Champion
In the seven competitions held since 2000, there has been one man to beat – Estonian powerhouse Margo Uusorg. He has won five of them, carrying three separate ‘wives’ in the process. In 2006, he completed the course in record time.
Other Wife-Carrying Festivals
It’s not just the Finns and the Estonians that have got into this wacky sport, although they’re clearly the best at it. The North American Wife-Carrying Championships, for example, take place every October at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine, USA. Sonkajärvi is around 200km north-west of Helsinki.
