The annual wife-carrying competition at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Bethel, Maine, fractures the phrase "behind every great man stands a great woman."

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Men actually carry women on their backs in the North American Wife Carrying Championships, which just completed its fifth year of competition, the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal said. Twenty-seven teams competed in the event, which ski resort officials said was a record.

The course -- all 278 yards of it -- includes a hairpin turn, a log hurdle and a water trench that a man must navigate with his wife clutching him around the neck. The prize is beer and money based on the wife's weight.

This year's winners, first-time, wife-hauler John Ferra and his spouse, Tess, took home 12 cases of beer and $675 -- five times Tess' weight, the newspaper said. They also received $1,000 for airfare to fly to next year's world championships in Finland.

The Ferra's winning time was 1 minute 6.5 seconds.