NEWRY — Fifty-two couples are competing this year in the 2012 North American Wife Carrying Championship on Saturday, Oct. 6, at Sunday River Ski Resort.
The bulk of the competitors are from New England, but others are from Florida, Virginia, Kentucky and New York, resort spokeswoman Darcy Morse said Friday by email.
Among the participants are Dave and Lacey Castro, the 2009 North American champions from Saco; Josh Mulholland and Nicole Vanzutphen, the 2012 Hauts County Exhibition Nova Scotia champions; and Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen, the four-time Wife Carrying World champions.
Inspired by Finnish wife-carrying folklore, the winners of the Newry competition take home the wife’s weight in beer, plus five times her weight in cash, Morse said.
Sunday River’s North American Wife Carrying Championship is part of the resort’s Fall Festival Weekend.
The annual event draws thousands of spectators to the resort each year, she stated Wednesday in a news release.
The wife-carry event itself takes place on a custom-built, 278-yard alpine course complete with wooden hurdles, sand traps and the always-popular “widow maker” water hazard.
Competing couples do not need to be married, but must comprise a man and a woman and both must be 21 years or older, Morse said. Either partner can be carried and the method of carry is up to the competing couple.
Couples compete two at once for time until the top two fastest times have been determined. Those two couples with the fastest times then go head-to-head for the North American Wife Carrying Championship title and prizes.
Winners of this year’s event also secure a spot in Sunday River’s 2013 North American Wife Carrying Championship, Morse said.
For more information on the North American Wife Carrying Championship, including high-resolution imagery, visit sundayriver.com or contact Darcy Morse at dmorse@sundayriver.com or call 207-824-5243.
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