STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS® 2009 World Championship in Switzerland

New Zealander is World’s Best Competitive Lumberjack

The world’s top competitive lumberjacks have crowned a new champion at the 2009 STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® World Championship: Jason Wynyard of New Zealand won four of six disciplines with ax and saw and thus the overall title. A total of nineteen athletes from the same number of nations competed in this athletic event in Brienz, Switzerland in front of 5,000 spectators.

Brienz, 13 September 2009. A total of 19 competitive lumberjacks comprised the starting field of the 2009 STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® World Championship in Brienz, Switzerland. All participants numbered among the world’s elite, but the fastest and technically most perfect in this competition of the best was Jason Wynyard. Already for the second time since 2006, the New Zealander triumphed over the competition. He won four of six disciplines to take the overall title. The second- and third-place finishers were the Australian Brad Delosa and German Robert Ebner. The German and Czech Martin Komárek made the fight for third place suspenseful right down to the final minute – Komárek, who finished third in last year's world championship –   saw his hopes of a place on the winners’ rostrum dashed only by a disqualification in the final Hot Saw discipline with the tuned power saw.

The top international athletes set a total of 20 new national records before a sold-out crowd of 5,000 enthusiastic spectators and thus demonstrated the high general level of accomplishment in this competition series. Athletes from Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, Germany, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia travelled to Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland district for the international season finale of the elite division of lumberjack sports.

World Champion Jason Wynyard was happy about his victory: “After getting off to a weak start in first ax discipline, I did pretty well. It was hard work, but it was a great competition. Brienz is incredible, the people were incredible, and I am proud to have won here. It is a special moment for me.”

The STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® World Championship was also a special occurrence for Brienz, which already has a tradition in holding events of this kind with its Brienz Lumberjack Days. Lilo Wyler, president of the local organizing committee, and Paul Sumalowitsch, world championship coordinator, were both happy about the success of this major sports event: “Thousands upon thousands of enthusiastic spectators, a lot of fair competition, 20 new records – these are not the kind of results one sees every day. It was a great day for the woodcarvers’ village of Brienz, and also, we believe, for the spectators." At the end of this year’s competition, it was announced that the next STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® World Championship will be held on 4 September 2010 in St. Johann in Tyrol / Austria.

Six disciplines enthralled Swiss spectators

The STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® SERIES consists of three disciplines with the ax and three with the saw. The six technically demanding disciplines revolve around the athlete and his handling of the sports equipment and the wood. The three saw disciplines are known as Single Buck, STIHL Stock Saw and Hot Saw. Hot saws, for example, are tuned machines which impress with a 62-HP-engine, a chain speed of 240 km/h and a weight of 27 kilograms. Only the best competitive lumberjacks are able to harness the concentrated power of the saw to make precise, clean cuts. One of a total of three ax disciplines – Standing Block Chop, Underhand Chop and Springboard – which the participants in the STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® world championship must face is the so-called Standing Block Chop. This simulates the felling of a tree. Precise delivery of the axe blows and a powerful swing are decisive for quick success in the standing block chop. Because
STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS® competitions are multidiscipline events, it is not enough just to be in good condition and be technically perfect in one discipline; instead, consistently good performance in all three ax and saw disciplines is the key to success.

STIHL^® TIMBERSPORTS^® is a registered trademark of ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG.
For more information about this, go to www.stihl-timbersports.de/marke.