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BETHEL, Maine, Oct 9, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The annual wife-carrying competition at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Bethel, Maine, fractures the phrase "behind every great man stands a great woman."
Men actually carry women on their backs in the North American Wife Carrying Championships, which just completed its fifth year of competition, the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal said. Twenty-seven teams competed in the event, which ski resort officials said was a record.
The course -- all 278 yards of it -- includes a hairpin turn, a log hurdle and a water trench that a man must navigate with his wife clutching him around the neck. The prize is beer and money based on the wife's weight.
This year's winners, first-time, wife-hauler John Ferra and his spouse, Tess, took home 12 cases of beer and $675 -- five times Tess' weight, the newspaper said. They also received $1,000 for airfare to fly to next year's world championships in Finland.
The Ferra's winning time was 1 minute 6.5 seconds.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
