- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
Lumberjack athletes battle for woodcutting crown
Sixteen athletes from around the world sent woodchips flying on Saturday in an unusual competition, as they battled it out in Vienna for the Timbersports World Trophy.
On a stage in front of the Austrian capital's imposing city hall, spectators looked on as the entrants faced off against each other to chop up wood as quickly as possible in a variety of disciplines, using different axes and saws.
"Most of the competitors are lumberjacks or work in forestry," said Jean-Noel Raynaud from Stihl France, the company that organises the competition.
Marcel Dupuis, a 36-year-old Canadian weighing in at 110 kilogrammes (242 lb) and 1.80 metres tall (6ft), has been steeped in this world since an early age.
"I've always been interested in this because I cut wood all my youth," he told AFP, adding that though he is a fireman in his day job, "several generations" of his family have poured their heart and soul into woodcutting.
"It's something I'd like to pass on to my children. It's part of life, part of nature," he says.
Frenchman Pierre Puybaret also has fond memories of gathering wood with his parents in his native Correze region.
Even though he pursued a career as a hydraulic mechanic, when he discovered competitive woodcutting in 2010 he quickly became addicted.
The 35-year-old explains he was attracted by "the range of tasks" one is expected to master in a discipline which demands both "brawn and technique".
-'Original extreme sport'-
Though not part of Saturday's event, perhaps the sport's most spectacular event is the "springboard" where competitors have to hack slots into a 2.8m-high trunk.
Showing off dexterity and balance, they then jam planks of wood into those same slots in order to swing onto them and climb to the top.
"It's a complete sport, like a biathlon," says Puybaret, a six-time French champion.
Raynaud says the scene in France is still relatively modest, with around 80-100 athletes in seven clubs across the country.
"It's not something you can make a living from because the prizes aren't big enough," says Puybaret, who has had to set up his own site for training and get a truckload of wood delivered at the beginning of each competition season.
The sport is better developed in its birthplace Australia, as well as in New Zealand and Canada, countries which regularly supply the sport's champions.
Christopher Borghorst, spokesman for the Timbersports competition, explains that the sport has a pedigree stretching back to the 1870s Down Under, adding: "This is also why we call it the original extreme sport."
Indeed on Saturday it was a New Zealander, Jack Jordan, who clinched the World Trophy, with American Jason Lentz finishing second and Australia's Brad De Losa third.
L.Dubois--BTB