World champs win Maine wife-carrying contest

[October 08, 2012]  NEWRY, Maine (AP) -- A Finnish couple has added to their victories by taking first place in the North American Wife Carrying Championship at Maine's Sunday River ski resort.

Taisto Miettinen and Kristina Haapanen traveled from Helsinki, Finland -- where they won the World Wife Carrying Championship -- for Saturday's contest. The Sun Journal (bit.ly/Q30QWq) reports that the couple finished with a time of 52.58 seconds on a course that includes hurdles, sand traps and a water hole.

The winners receive the woman's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash.

For Miettinen and Haapanen, that meant a check for $530. They shared their beer winnings with the second- and third- place finishers -- Jesse Wall and Christine Arsenault of South Paris and David and Lacey Castro of Lewiston.

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Information from: Sun-Journal, http://www.sunjournal.com/

[Associated Press]

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