The L C Brisbane Finlandia annual Wife Carrying Contest 2000 

On Sunday, May 28th Lions Club of Brisbane Finlandia Inc. organized the annual Wife Carrying Contest for the third time. The venue for the event was traditionally Meadowlands Park at Carindale, Brisbane.

The weather being unexceptionally cold for Brisbane, our Lions team begun to prepare things ready for the event. This year we had a couple of other contests to accompany the wife carrying, which were Darts and gumboot throwing. They turned out to be quite popular, and we decided to continue trying to make the whole event to a bigger and more interesting happening for the whole family in the becoming years.

This year the track for the wife carrying contest was a bit more challenging from previous years because of couple of rather sharp turns and slippery spots. Our Australian version of the track differs a little from the original Finnish one, the main difference being that we don't have a waist deep water obstacle, which is part of the original Finnish track.

The event here in Brisbane has clearly gained more popularity every year, judging by the amount of people showing up to either participate or just watch the contest. A couple of news teams from two of Australia's national TV networks were there too to make a story about the main event wife carrying contest, and that same night on both channels a short clip about our Wife Carrying Contest was shown at the end of their main evening news. That was good publicity for the event, and who knows, maybe with a little bit of sponsoring The Wife Carrying Contest could grow to an annual Australian wide event.

Because of the cold weather, hot cups coffee sold much better than cold beer, which is very "unaustralian". Food from the BBQ sold also very well, and after people had had their lunch, it was time to start the darts contest. That turned out to be a very popular contest. There were separate series for men and women, both groups competing fiercely in their own series. The competition went on quite awhile being very tight, and the leader in both series kept changing often, and everyone seemed to enjoy the competition a lot. 

Because the whole idea of the day was to be a fun day for the whole family, the kids had their own "bag run" competition, which too was a very popular and fun part of the day. At the end of the competition every participant got a price, because after all the main purpose for the kids too was to have fun more than compete seriously.

While the kids were having there fun, and some of the people still competing with darts, others started the gumboot throwing contest. For many of the participants throwing a gumboot was clearly something totally new, which is probably why there were almost as many styles in throwing the gumboot, as there were competitors. Some tried to throw the gumboot with the help of a short run, some tried the spinning style like in hammer throwing or in discus. Some seemed to think, that the most important thing in it was to get the gumboot as high up in the air as possible, not minding the length at all.

While the gumboot throwing was still on the news teams came, and we started to get ready for the main event of the day, wife carrying. This year we had 5 teams, and the contest was very even and tight. The winner couple this year was Mr. Vesa Pekkarinen carrying Mrs. Ritva Siltala. Congratulations to the winning couple! Traditionally the prize for the winners was the "wife's" weight of beer, which this time was 3 cartons + a six-pack.


Dart winners: Women - Raili Pajunen Score 37

Men - Jyrki Poyhonen Score 42


Gumboot throwing: Women - Elina Hankaniemi 15.5 meters

Men - Matti 25.5 meters


So that's what The Annual Wife Carrying Contest here in Brisbane was like this third consecutive year. We look forward to the next year's event, and hope to make it even bigger.

See you there!

Lions Club of Brisbane Finlandia Inc.