Lac La Biche was a battleground last week as couples fought for victory, but only one pair emerged victorious to claim the grand prize.
Joel and Alysha Jackson are this year’s official champions of the second-annual Alberta Wife Carrying Championships at the Lakeland Country Fair.
Wife-carrying is not for the faint of heart and pushes couples to their limits. The sport requires two teams to run through the course in timed heats.
The two fastest teams compete in a final heat, with the winning couple taking the title. This year, 13 local and out-of-area couples participated in the Wife Carrying event, including Edmonton Oilers assistant strength and conditioning coach Joel Jackson and his wife Alysha.
After blitzing through the 278-yard outdoor obstacle course in one minute and 15.47 seconds, the Jacksons left the competition in the dust and claimed victory.
The couple’s time was impressive but still a far cry from the World Record of 56.9 seconds set in 2006 by Margo Uusorg and Sandra Kullas in Finland.
However, Joel and Alysha tried to win, not break a world record.
“I think maybe there’s a little competitive nature in both of us, so I think we had a first-place goal in mind,” Alysha told Lakeland Today.
Carried To Victory
Their win was hard fought after just barely finishing third last year, one second behind the second-place team.
Their previous lacklustre finish set their competitive spirits ablaze this year.
Joel and Alysha trained using the green space outside their home in preparation for this year’s wife-carrying event.
But the trick to their success was a different carrying method than the classic piggy-back style they used last year.
This year, the Jacksons opted for the Estonian carrying method, which involved Alysha being carried upside down with her chest on Joel’s back, legs around his shoulders, and arms clinging to his waist.
Joel was wearing Alysha like a backpack. Talk about clingy!
One of the Estonian method’s biggest advantages was that it allowed Joel to use his arms, which made running and climbing easier.
Meanwhile, Alysha was clinging to Joel for dear life. The Jacksons weren’t always wife-carrying pros. They entered their first contest on a whim after Alysha’s mother sent them an advertisement for the event.
Alysha and Joel were camping with their two sons in the area, so they figured they might as well sign up.
“I think we surprised her, and we did register…and we had lots of fun,” said Alysha.
What’s Next For The Jacksons?
Little did the Jacksons know, they would become provincial Wife Carrying champs. The fruits of their labour include free entry to the North American Wife Carrying finals at the Sunday River Resort in Maine this fall.
Joel and Alysha are still deciding whether to compete at the national event. If they decide to put their skills to the test at the national level, they can expect fierce competition.
A couple recorded a time of just 55 seconds at the most recent North American Wife Carrying championship.
Right now, the couple is busy figuring out what to do with their grand prize of 130 pounds of beer.
According to Joel, they will either throw a party or bring the beer with them when they go to their friends’ places.
The amount of beer the winners take home depends on the weight of the person being carried. The minimum weight required to participate is 108 pounds.
If the person being carried is less than 108 pounds, ankle weights are added to bring them up to weight.
If beer wasn’t enough to convince you to try the event, winners also receive a cash prize calculated in a similar way to the beer prize.
Joel and Alysha also received two commemorative shirts and four Edmonton Riverhawks tickets.
Better yet, you don’t need to be married to participate in the Wife Carrying event! You can carry your wife, neighbour, daughter, or whoever else is willing to be carried across the finish line.
Whether or not Joel and Alysha return to defend their provincial title depends on whether or not the couple are in the area for the Lakeland Country Fair next year.
