MEN, time to hoist your woman of choice and get training for this year’s Wife Carrying Competition at Hawkesbury Show.
While you can’t actually rise to the trot like on a horse, aficionados say partners have to practise fitting into each other’s rhythms.
There are three main ways the wife can cling on to the man – the classic fireman’s hold where she lies sideways across his shoulders, the good old piggyback, or the serious competitors’ choice, the Estonian hold where the woman hangs down the man’s back with her legs each side of his neck and her arms wrapped round his middle.
Competitors have to negotiate hurdles, hay bales, tyres and a limbo bar over a 200-metre course.
This year it’s on the Friday night of the show, May 5, at 7pm and if there are enough contestants there will be heats.
There’s a prize for best costume, and the winning couple scores $350. Second placegetters get $100, and third $50.
Wives must be at least 17 years old, weigh a minimum of 49kg and wear a helmet. If the wife weighs less than 49kg, she must carry weights. If the male drops the wife, he incurs a 15-second penalty.
You don’t have to be married to enter.
Winners qualify to compete in the Australian Wife Carrying Championships at Singleton Show for a chance to win a trip to Finland for the international finals.
It’s $25 a couple to enter, and you must register by Thursday, May 4 at the Show Office, Racecourse Road, Clarendon, or ring 4577 3591 for an entry form.