Setanta in Finland

Finland is the destination of choice for Setanta members in July...

Firstly we have Aoife Desmond who is taking part in the annual Wife Carrying World Championships in Sonkajärvi on 3rd July with her friend John. Men carry their "wives" on their backs through over 250m of obstacles, including a water jump. The winner is awarded his spouse's weight in beer.
So, there won't be too much beer if Aoife and John win

The week after Nina and Timo are getting married in Hämeenlinna on July 10th. Nina has been living and working in Tampere for the last few years where she met Timo. A few of us have been invited to the wedding and will be travelling over to help them celebrate. We are looking forward to the day with the happy couple and to our time in Finland. (Not long now Nina!!!)

The following week then sees the Fin5 Orienteering Week taking place in Imatra. Some of the wedding guests are staying over to take part in this event. There will be about 3300 participants, a little bigger than our events. The competition area consists of a large forest area with few forest roads and a couple of farm houses. There are numerous 30-60m high hills, but also small lakes, marshes and flat areas between.

Back to the Wife Carrying!!! After winning the Irish Wife Carrying Championships in 2008 at the Sneem Festival, Aoife and John were first again in 2009 and won an all expenses trip to Finland to represent Ireland in the 2010 World Wife Carrying Championships. Last year they finished 8th out of 35 teams in the World Championships and hope to better that this year. I hear they have been training hard to find ways for Aoife to cling on with out strangling John!

Good luck to all and hopefully we will get some reports when everyone returns home!