What do you get if you win the UK Wife Carrying Race? Bragging rights and a barrel of ale

As Teemu Touvinen raced up the hill with his girlfriend Jatta Leinonen slung over his shoulder – downing bales of hay and being doused with buckets of water – he saw a victory within his grasp.

With a final push in the final 50 meters, the pair moved past their rivals and won first place in the 2026 UK Wife Carrying Race in Dorking, England, on Sunday.

Yes, they are awarded with a traditional cask of local ale.

While Touvinen spent the race worried that a sweet victory was about to be snatched from his grasp, Leinonen was busy hanging on for dear life.

“I was afraid that I would fall because it was slippery,” he said As It Happened hosted by Nil Kӧksal. “I’m just holding on to my legs and hoping for the best.”

In the end, they said it was worth drinking the champion’s bad drink.

“It feels really good,” Touvinen said.

Exactly how it sounds, mostly

The event is, more or less, what it sounds like. Competitors race 380 meters, through obstacles and hills, while carrying another person.

It is a Scandinavian tradition that has since spread to the UK, United States, Australia, Poland, and more even in Canada.

It is said to be based on a 19th century Finnish fairy tale about a gang that robs homes and steals women. Despite the mischievous origins, these days, it’s all fun and full of shenanigans.

It is no longer limited to husbands and wives.

Anyone can participate, as long as they are carrying a person over the age of 18 who weighs 110 pounds. Those under that weight need to wear a sack full of flour or water to bring them down to the minimum weight.

“You don’t have to carry your own wife. It can be someone else’s. Or your partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, sister or brother,” said the organizers. “They must weigh less than yours.”

The couple became pregnant in 2024, when the world championships were held near their hometown in Finland.

At first, Touvinen says, they just signed up for the laughs. But, it turns out they were pretty good at it.

“So I’m thinking, ‘Okay, next year we’re going to do better than this, and we’re taking this seriously,'” he said.

However, their second race did not go as planned.

“Actually we didn’t do better because 10 meters before the finish, we [fell].”

But this time he says they were training. For Touvinen, that meant lifting weights and running, sometimes running in a weighted vest.

Then, as the big competition approached, the couple practiced their way of carrying the wives.

Runners can carry their partners however they like, but Leinonen and Touvinen like what’s known as the “Estonian Hold,” where the “wife” hangs upside down on the carrier’s back with her legs crossed in front of her face.

The reason is simple.

“This is style [where] I don’t fall,” said Leinonen.

The couple’s next stop will be the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland in July.

If they win they will be rewarded with ale.