Margo Uusorg rules: Estonians world wife-carrying champions again

Estonians rule, this is our 8th year in a row winning the World Wife-Carrying Competition. I'm proud to be Estonian. Long live Estonia!!! This was the FOURTH victory for Margo Ussorg and the third in a row for his family. Brother Madis Uusorg won in 2004. The Uusorg's are my heros!

Here's some photos of Margo Uusorg through the years:

2000	??	2003	2005

Uusorg, 25, completed the course in 59 seconds with friend Egle Soll, 23

"We don't have a secret, we just try to run fast and hope the legs work," said Uusorg, who works in Stockholm as an embassy driver.

He warned that the family would be even stronger contenders next year when brother number three, Urmet, takes part. "He holds the Estonian record for the 800 metres," Uusorg said.

Take it from a world champion: The best way for a man to carry a woman is to dangle her upside down over his back, with her thighs squeezing his neck and her arms around his torso.

"That way, your arms are free to help with balance. It's more stable. There's less shifting of the weight," says Margo Uusorg. He has just carried Egle Soll, her pigtails flapping against his back, around a 278-yard oval track that includes a 3-foot-deep water trough and two hurdles of wooden logs. In just over one minute, they won the Estonian championship here, and qualified for this coming weekend's Wife Carrying World Championship in Sonkajarvi, Finland, where Mr. Uusorg is a heavy favorite to win his third world crown.

"When you carry this way," he says, "it's much easier."

Ms. Soll, upright again and flushed by the experience, if not the victory, says, "It's not so bad. But you don't see much."

Besides, says Mr. Uusorg, "she's too heavy. Wait, that sounds bad. She's not fat, she's just too heavy for the competition." His girlfriend is nearly six feet tall and weighs about 127 pounds. Ms. Soll, his carrying partner, is barely five feet tall and weighs just 101 pounds.

Mr. Uusorg, a 23-year-old administrative officer at the Estonian embassy in Sweden, arrived in 2000 carrying Birgit Ulrich, a college student weighing about 80 pounds. They won in the record time of 55.5 seconds. Then they won again in 2001.

But even carrying the heftier, 21-year-old Ms. Soll, who wears a weighted vest to bring her up to the weight limit, Mr. Uusorg looks tough to beat. He is tall, muscular and a regular runner. After winning the Estonian title last month in a time of one minute and 34/100ths of second, he said, "That was pretty easy."

The fastest time to complete the 235 m (771 ft) obstacle course of the World Wife-Carrying Championships, held annually in Sonkaj”rvi, Finland, is 55.5 second by Margo Uusorg and Birgit Ulricht (pictured) of L””nernaa, Estonia, on July 1, 2000.