Ouch! Wife carrying race that ended in calamity
MANY couples encounter ups and downs in their marriage … though probably not quite like this.
A competitor at the annual UK wife-carrying race may be sleeping on the sofa tonight after he landed on his partner’s head.
Kate Burke had to be stretchered off after her husband Christopher slipped on a muddy, downhill section of the 415-yard course yesterday. The pair had tackled the event using the ‘Estonian carry’ – a manoeuvre where wives hold on to their husband’s back upside down, with their legs over his shoulders.
Rain in the morning meant the obstacle course in Dorking, Surrey, was treacherous, and as Mr Burke approached the ‘soak zone’, where spectators throw water, he slipped, taking a heavy tumble back on to the head of his wife.
While spectators looked on in horror, Mrs Burke could be heard shouting ‘Ow, my back!’ as she writhed on the muddy ground in agony, before being taken to hospital.
She suffered ligament damage and bruising, according to a statement on the contest’s website, but will be ‘OK once rested’.
Race organiser Robert McCaffrey said: ‘I was running in the race myself, and found it very hard going, with some slippery areas after this morning’s rain. They were very unlucky to slip and even unluckier to sustain an injury.’
He added: ‘All partners being carried are required to wear a crash helmet, and all competitors are warned that wife-carrying is a potentially dangerous activity.’
The event, which this year was won by Chris Hepworth carrying Tanisha Prince, does not require competitors to be married.
According to the organisers, wifecarrying has its origins in Viking raiders taking local wenches in eighth-century England.