Hungarians join wife-carrying race to beat pandemic blues

RACE OF A LIFETIME More couples have come out to compete in the wife-carrying championship in Tapiobicske, Hungary, on Saturday. —REUTERS

TAPIOBICSKE, Hungary — Some 40 Hungarian husbands, with their wives on their backs, clambered over rough terrain on Saturday in the nation’s second wife-carrying contest.

A previous race in October attracted only a dozen couples.

“We have just emerged from a difficult period due to the coronavirus and we need to go and have fun in the open air,” Gergely Guraly, who organized the race, told Reuters.

Guraly began preparations in January for the contest, which is said to have origins dating back to the Viking age.

In modern times, the tradition is particularly established in Finland, where it has taken place since the 1990s.

Estonian races have lent their name to the Estonian style of wife-carrying, with the wife upside down and her feet over her husband’s shoulders, rather than a classic piggyback.

Mark Mazacs and his wife Anett chose the piggyback technique.

“We devised a strategy, figuring out the best way of carrying my wife on my back,” Mazacs said.