Jetsettersblog

Australian Wife Carrying Championships

April 30, 2008 on 5:15 pm | In Australia, Beachbooker, Festivals, Finland, New South Wales, Northern, Queensland, South Australia, Sydney, Tasmania, Victoria, Western |

Australia is once again holding what must be one of the most unusual ‘sports’ competitions ever invented - The National Australian Wife Carrying Championships – with the winners set to represent the country in the Wife Carrying World Championships to be held in Sonkajarva, Finland, on July 7. The event is sponsored by The Finnish Tourist Board and Finnair.

The Australian Wife Carrying titles will be held at the annual Singleton Countryfest in NSW on Saturday April 12 and there is expected to be fierce competition as men and women of all sizes vie to win the Australian title and go on to the world finals.

Last year’s Australian champions, local duo Anthony Partridge and Angela Moore –who fought off some particularly strong international competition - came a credible 5th in the World Championships in Finland.

This year they will not be competing –leaving the door open to some fresh competition and possibly some new, and more refined, wife carrying techniques. Anthony Partridge will though do a special Exhibition Performance in conjunction with former Olympic swimmer Giann Rooney, showing off his well honed wife carrying techniques.

The race track will be a minimum 200 metres in length, consisting of hurdles, limbo bars, water course and a sand trap.

Like all elite sports, long gone are the days when the wife was slung, indiscriminately, over the shoulder and left hanging on for grim death. The techniques have been subtly refined over they years to counteract bounce and the pull of gravity – especially with the hurdles - which were counter-active forces for contestants. An iron grip is also essential – both for the males and females. Screaming is frowned upon as it is seen as a form of sledging.

Local power lifter Dave Vaughan will attempt to carry special guest Irish sports junkie Julia Galvin in the Charity Wife Carrying Event – no mean feat – to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia.

The events will be called by 2GB Rugby League announcers Darryl Brohman, Bob Fulton, Ray Hadley and Steve Roach and will be transmitted through 64 radio stations along with a live broadcast from Power Fm.

The National Australian Wife Carrying Championships are sponsored by Finnair and the Finnish Tourist Board. “This event has really touched a spot with this sports loving country,” Finnish Tourist Board local representative Satu Raunola said. “Aussies are highly competitive and their wife carrying techniques really rate up there with the best in the world. I think they could soon be bringing the World Championship title back to Australia,” Raunola said.

To enter the competition register at http://www.countryfest.com.au/

*The event is only one of many unique events staged in Finland each year. For more information, please visit www.sonkajarvi.fi/?deptid=15136 For more information on Finland’s crazy events, visit the Finnish Tourist Board’s new Australian website: www.visitfinland.com/au/events