More than 30 couples vie for beer and cash in Wife Carrying Championship

More than 30 couples competed in the annual North American Wife Carrying Championship on Saturday, Oct. 12, in Western Maine . Competitors had to jump over logs, splash through water and slog through mud, all while carrying a partner, in hopes of claiming the grand prize.

Traditionally, the event featured male competitors carrying a woman , but for this competition, couples didn’t have to be a man and a woman or even married.

There is some skill to the sport, most of the runners used a technique where the “wife” is carried like a backpack upside down leaving the “husband’s” arms are free to help with obstacles.

"So, I go over his shoulders and hug his back,” contestant Sara Porterfield said. “And, I don't know there's different ways of holding on. People do wear belts, and the women hang on to the belt, the man's belt. But I kind of wrapped my hands around and hang on to my thighs, and it works really well. Nice secure hold."

“Looks awkward, but works well," Porterfield's husband Wade added.

The winning team got the “wife’s” weight in beer and five times the “wife's” weight in cash. To figure out how much beer that is, the winning “wife” is put on one side of a see-saw-like scale while cases of beer are put on the other until they balance out.

The post More than 30 couples vie for beer and cash in Wife Carrying Championship appeared first on Straight Arrow News .