Hello and welcome! 

My name is Kimmo and I will help you to get familiar with the great sport of wife carrying. In the process, you will also get a lot of useful knowledge of municipality of Sonkajärvi and the competition event. 



This blog also offers some, not so vital, information about Finnish culture, food, traditions and of course, introduce to quite new team sport, called Tonkkumi. It’s hard to translate directly, but I try anyway. Churnrubber is compined word on churn and teat rubbers. If you want to be the best of the world, you need some accuracy and eye-to-hand-coordination. Also you need to come and participate on world championship contest of Tonkkumi, which been held on that same day.  There is also karaoke contest and country fair on the venue.

But on my first blog, I will tell you something about wife carrying and what to expect. The event of wife carrying World championship, has been held since year 1992. The sport it self, is based on a story of Herkko Ronkainen, who was kind-hearted man, that lived in forrest of Kainuu in the mid 1800s. 

He was shoemaker, who become a robber and helped poor families. His wife was not pleased with choices that her husband did and nag him a lot. Eventually legend was born, when Herkko, a very large man, grab his wife on his shoulders and carry her in the depth of the forrest and left her there. Wife eventually find back home and never saw his husband again. Herkko Ronkainen gather group of men around him, whom helped him on his robberys. If someone wanted to join his group, aspirant had to run an obstacle course, while carrying large sack of flour on his shoulders. If aspirant did not succeed on course, he got a huge asskicking. Obstacle course included jumping over waterhazards and climbing over the falling trees.

When you see the obstacle course on wife carrying event, you find similar obstacles that was in the story. You have to climb over obstacles ans there is waterhazards and

The obstacle course is nearly 250 meters long and contestants need good physical health. The person, who is on the shoulders, needs to weight over 49kg.  On the picture, you see the most common and uncomfortable position, which the portable person needs to get used to. But you can find your own style, that suit you best.

First competition event is on Friday 5.7.2019, when sprint race starts the event. Saturday 6.7.2019 there is team race and final there is individual race.  Finland,Estonia, Lithuania and Russia has been the champions, but there has been contestants from all over the world; Sri Lanka, Australia, Mexiko and many other, who had traveled a long distance, to be involved on this great event.

Probably the most famous participants, who had been in Sonkajärvi, was basketball player Dennis Rodman.

If you want more information on race or see more pictures of it, go and visit official website www.eukonkanto.fi 

-Kimmo Tirri-