Estonians Wife-Carrying Champions for Seventh Year

SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Two Estonian students clinched the country's seventh straight wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, winning the "wife's" weight in beer and a sauna.

The race has its roots in local legend, according to which it was common in the late 19th century to steal women from the neighboring villages.

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Participants compete in the wife-carrying world championship in the remote central Finnish village of Sonkajarvi, which lies deep in forest and a few hours' drive from the Arctic Circle on July 3, 2004. Two Estonian students clinched the country's seventh straight wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, winning the 'wife's' weight in beer and a sauna. (Lehtikuva/Reuters)