Wife carrying winners take a bow

ONE of sport’s silliest showdowns took place in Kirkcudbright on Sunday.

The UK Wife Carrying Championships saw 12 pairs take part, each running two laps of the 250- metre track and the winners were the duo who completed the race in the fastest time.

At the end of it all, speedy sweethearts Hattie Cronin from Woking and Stuart Johnson from Ayr emerged victorious, with

Stuart opting to carry Hattie ‘Estonian style’, rather than the other options of a fireman’s lift or piggy back.

They finished with a time of 71 seconds, not too far off the world record of 56.9 seconds.

Their prize for going the extra mile was 26-year-old Hattie’s weight in beer, and a spot in the 2027 World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland, where the sport originated.