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| Friday: Qualifying done, now comes real thing By Steve Bowman, GO Games Staff May 31, 2002 MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The whittling is over, now the real cutting begins in the Stihl TimberSports Series being held at the Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival. For the past two days, 26 lumberjacks have sawed, chopped and pounded their way through two qualifying rounds in the hot Tennessee sun. Now only 10 finalists remain in each of the six events that make up the contest.
Included in those 10 are Jason Wynyard and Dave Bolstad, who each qualified in five of the six events, creating more questions than answers in their battle to secure the next TimberSports Championship. Bolstad of Taumarunui, New Zealand is the reigning TimberSports Champion. He won the title in 2001, virtually walking away with the championship after winning four of the six events. It was a convincing victory in the eyes of everyone but Wynyard. In the four years preceding that contest, Wynyard of Auckland, New Zealand was the undisputed champion, having won four straight TimberSports championships. "I've got something to prove,'' Wynyard said. "I feel like I let it slip away last year." This is the first event since the two met at the TimberSports Championship in Alaska in 2001. While Wynyard is working on getting back the title, Bolstad is intent on keeping it. This competition at the Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival is the first steps to getting there. It's the first of two Stihl TimberSports competitions that include a total of four final events. Each weekend of the competition has two separate events, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. In each of those events the goal for each competitor is to secure as many points as possible. Winning is the ultimate goal, but in the TimberSports Series, competitors compete much like an athlete in a decathlon. Competition is so fierce that winning all of the events is almost out of the question. Securing points for high finishes in each event, though, is the real key. At the end of the four events, the 12 athletes with the highest points move on to the championship. "It's not as complicated as it seems,'' said John Hughes, ESPN timber analyst. "You just have to keep an eye on things, and remember that gaining points is what every thing is all about.'' Because of that competitors often spend more time working on their weaknesses than their strengths. "You have to qualify in as many events as possible so you can have a chance to make points in every event,'' Hughes said. "That's why this competition is so fierce. You can't be great in only one discipline. You've got to do it all and be good at it all.'' Wynyard and Bolstad have defined that standard. The six events include the Standing Chop, the Single Buck, Springboard, Underhand Chop, the Stock Saw and the Hot Saw. Almost all of them have been developed from age-old techniques and practices used by loggers and lumberjacks all over the world. As the competition heats up, a competitor understands that he has to concentrate on his weaknesses to score higher in those events. While Wynyard and Bolstad seem to be at the top of their games, it's their weaknesses that are keeping them in a dead heat. Wynyard, for example, failed to qualify for Saturday's Springboard competition even though he has set world records in the event. The same event foiled his chances at the Championship. "I've got to spend more time working on that and hope it doesn't cost me in the other events,'' Wynyard said. While he is working on that, Bolstad has turned one of his weaknesses around. Friday he qualified for the first time in the Single Buck, a competition that requires the competitor to use a cross-cut saw to slice through a 20-inch piece of wood. "Now that he's got that down, he may be unstoppable,'' Hughes said. But Bolstad insists there are other things that will likely come into play. For instance, he failed to qualify in the Stock Saw event. "The stock saw will make all the difference,'' Bolstad said. "It's so easy to win or lose. The overall winner will likely be decided by who has a good run in that event. And there's no way to quess what will happen.'' To understand how close the competition is in the Stock Saw the difference between 26 competitors cutting a 16-inch log is often less than 3 seconds. "That's not much room for mistakes,'' Bolstad said. "That's just one little flaw in the wood or in the saw, and you are done.''
Stihl TimberSports Series STOCK SAW Competitor Place Time Harry Burnsworth 1 10.950 Matt Bush 2 11.740 Jerry Gingras 3 11.865 Mike Sullivan 4 11.903 Jason Wynyard 5 12.175 Jim Taylor 6 12.255 Dale Ryan 7 12.263 Warrick Hallett 8 12.347 Rick Halvorson 9 12.357 Paul Pfenninger 10 12.560  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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