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Each year, the championship draws thousands of visitors to the
town of only about 4,000 inhabitants in central Finland.
Saturday's competition was the 24th year it has been held.
Having gained followers across the world, preliminary
competitions were held in countries such as the United States,
Australia, Poland and Britain, organizers said on their website.
Among the two dozen contesting couples, Vytautas Kirkliauskas
and his wife Neringa Kirkliauskiene came out on top for a second
straight year, completing a 253.5 meter (277 yards) obstacle
course featuring a water trap in 1 minute and 6 seconds.
The Lithuanian couple claimed the first place prize - consisting
of the wife's weight in beer - after beating six-time champion
Taisto Miettinen of Finland and his partner Katja Kovanen by the
slimmest of margins - 0.1 seconds.
"I was looking at the watch and I thought I'm not going to make
it, but we did it," Kirkliauskas said.
Wife-carrying as a sport drew inspiration from the 19th century
legend of Ronkainen the Robber, who compelled would-be members
of his gang to prove their mettle by carrying sacks of grain or
live pigs over a similar course.
The competition is also said to look back to an even earlier
practice of wife-stealing - leading many present-day contestants
to compete with someone else's wife.
(Reporting by Attila Cser; Writing by Niklas Pollard; Editing by
Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
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