The ninth annual UK wife-carrying championship has taken place in Surrey. The race took place in Dorking on 6 March, and saw dozens of couples running the course.
Descended from Scandinavian tradition, the couples have to run a 380-metre course littered with hay bales to jump over, and a splash zone where competitors get drenched in water. The winners get to take home a barrel of ale for all their efforts.
This year, a new UK record was set by American Jonathan Schwochert and his French-born wife Charlotte Xiong, who ran the course in 1 minute and 40 seconds.
Schwochert said: we do a bit of training. We do a little course that we kept running last year very quietly and out of the way where there werent too many people to look. This year we only ran it once but I was doing runs with a weighted backpack and it got a bit tough, chaffing up my back so I had to take a break.
There is a minimum 50kg weight rule for the person being carried along the course. Women can also carry their husbands, and same-sex couples are welcome at the race as well.
The world championships take place in Finland later this year.
