Inside the UK Wife Carrying Race taking place in Surrey on Sunday

On Sunday, one of the UK's wackiest races returns, bringing some Scandinavian fun to the Surrey sporting scene. About 70 people are expected to carry their wives, husbands, partners, friends and family up a hill in the UK's Wife Carrying Race in Dorking, now entering its 17th year with the winners qualifying for the Wife Carrying World Championships in Finland in July. "It's certainly chaotic," says Ian Giles, race director of the UK race. "There are a few familiar faces each year." While the couple who won the last two years' races are back to defend their crown, competition is on the horizon with a "stacked" couple from the sport's Finnish home. Giles added: "This year we have 35 couples racing and at least another 15 on a waiting list." Allegedly dating back centuries, wife carrying races involve people putting their partner on their back, front or over their shoulder, and completing a course of hills, hay bales and a "splash zone" of buckets of water and water pistols. In the UK the practice reportedly links back to the Viking pillage of Lindisfarne. In sporting terms, its roots are in Finland, where the first world championships took place in 1996. The UK Wife Carrying Race fe

Mar 7, 2026 → Mar 7, 2026