Beer and cash prizes for wife-carrying contest winners

Posted by: admin , October 11, 2016

A husband and wife from Maine have won the 17th annual North American Wife-Carrying competition, and will compete in the world championship in Finland next year!
During the event, Elliot and Giana Storey completed the 278-yard obstacle course featuring sand traps and water hazards in 59.18 seconds, beating 43 other teams to take home 11 cases of beer and $665 (being Giana’s weight in beer and 5 x her weight in money).
The event is said to be based on the 19th century tale of Finland’s ‘Ronkainen the Robber’, who required gang members to prove their toughness by completing a course with a heavy sack, or a woman.
Today, couples can choose who carries whom, and the method of carrying each other, such as the ‘Estonian Carry’, where the person being carried is upside down and dangling behind the carrying partner.