Matt Bush cut to the quick, and the gold medal, by beating the unbeatables.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Matt Bush did the impossible, beat the unbeatable as he tripped and slipped his way to the gold medal in the Men's Endurance.

Bush, who has won bronze and silver medals in the past two years, captured his first gold medal in an event New Zealand has owned. Bush of Croghan, N.Y. bested Dion Lane of New Zealand in the final.

Until that point, it looked as if Lane was unbeatable. The huge lumberjack eliminated his brother-in-law, Jason Wynyard with an incredible round of 50.92 seconds.

Wynyard, considered the top lumberjack in the world, won the gold medal in 2000 and 2001.

"(Lane) was on fire today," Wynyard said. "That time is unbelievable. If he cuts like that again, nobody will touch him."

Unfortunately for Lane, he didn't cut like that.

The Endurance event is made of three competitions, one is the underhand, where competitors chop through a 20-inch block of wood they are standing on. The next step is the standing block chop, where the a similar piece of wood is standing in front of the chopper much like a tree. And the last of the round is the single buck, which requires the competitor to saw through a log with a crosscut saw.

On the initial leg in the underhand chop, Lane jumped from the log before it was cut through, and had to get back on top to finish it off.

"At that point I was mentally buggered," Lane said. "It just blew me away."

Having to go back, opened the door for Bush who was matching Lane stroke for stroke. Bush, though, was able to stay focused.

	“	I've done it (tripped) enough now, I know better to let it affect me. ”
		— Matt Bush, after winning the Mens Endurance gold medal

"I knew if I could hang with him, I could pass him on the single buck," Bush said.

If Bush had any problems it was as he transitioned from the underhand chop to the standing block chop. Running between the stations, Bush slipped on a wood chip, and almost fell.

"There was a time when I would have let that bother me," Bush said. "I've done it (tripped) enough now, I know better to let it affect me."

Bush quickly regained his balance and sliced through the 20-inches of pine, gaining a lead on Lane that would prove to be insurmountable going into the final leg. Bush quickly dispatched the log, leaving Lane in his sawdust.

The final contest was almost anti-climatic to the two semi-final rounds.

In the first semi-final, Lane and Wynyard, set up an exciting match between brother in laws. Wynyard was expected to win going away. But Lane jumped ahead on the first chopping log and never trailed in recording a time of 50.92 seconds. His previous best was a minute flat.

"Jason is unreal," Lane said. "If you don't dig for a bit more you'll be out of whack. That's why I gave it everything I had."

In the other semi, Bush defeated Dale Ryan in one of the closest races of the event. Ryan held a slight edge after the first two chopping events, but Bush passed him on the singlebuck.

"Dale is usually better on the chopping events and I'm usually better on the saw," Bush said. " That makes for a real close match. What really kills you is when you've got a close one like that. If you've got a little bit of a lead you can take advantage of it. But when it's close, you can't ever let up. You can't believe what it takes to do that."