Forget your Bhutanese Archery and your rock Paper Scissors Tournaments, Ireland has come a respectable eighth place in the International Wife Carrying Championships held on Saturday the 4th July in Sonkajarui in Finland’s Eastern Lake district.

The competition was first set up in 1992 by local business people in Sonkajarui to draw visitors to their beautiful lakeland tourist region.

Drawing over 10,000 spectators, this unusual event has gained huge recognition. This year saw 36 contestants from 13 different countries compete for gold.

With qualifying rounds taking place in each country, contestants from Australia, China, USA and Israel all sent their best.

The sport appears to be very popular in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions, with the Estonians hugely outperforming all others.

Representing Ireland were Skellig Island Boatman John O’Shea carrying his ‘wife’, music teacher Aoife Niamh Desmond, both from South Kerry. They had won the qualifiers in Sneem, Co Kerry in July last year. Though not legally married, they held a Sham Wedding last month and raised over €3,500 for Don’t Mess With The Baldies, an important cancer fightback charity.

For the first time in 11 years the host nation Finland took Gold with Taisto Miettinen carrying Kristiina Haapanen over the line just half a second before last year’s champion pair, Estonians Alar Voolagand and Kristi Viltrop.

The basic rules of the contest are that the man carries the woman through a 250-metre course which includes grass, sand, water and tarmac. The ‘wife’ must weigh at least 49kg, weight can be added in a rucksack to make up the 49kg. She must also be over 17 years old.

If the wife is dropped over the course a 15-second penalty is incurred. Considering the course record is a mere 55.5 seconds and only half a second separated this year’s gold from silver, a drop would have dire consequences.
A spokeswoman for the event, Anni Keranen, explained how the tradition is supposed to stem from a local bandit who, over a century ago, used to lead a gang of raiders who would steal wives and ‘carry them away over the rocks’. Rosvo-Ronkainen was the name of this Nordic legend.

The grand prize nowadays is your wife’s weight in beer. Anni also explained that it does not have to be your wife, it can be your daughter or even someone else’s wife.

Estonian Margo Ulusorg set the course record of 55.5 seconds and won the final seven times before retiring gracefully. In his colourful career he carried three different women to victory.