The world’s toughest sports lumberjacks are coming to Budapest

The World Trophy is one of the most spectacular and intense sports tree felling competitions in the world, and its Budapest leg includes several highlight events. The Rookie World Championship will be held on Friday, June 5, where the most promising young competitors in the sport, including Ádám Urbán, who is only 17 years old, will compete. The first Women’s World Championship in the history of the series will take place on Saturday, June 6th, and the World Trophy will close the competition weekend on the same day, where the Hungarian audience will be able to cheer on another Hungarian challenger in addition to the world’s elite sports lumberjacks. The competitor will be decided in a four-person qualifying time trial in April.

In the World Trophy format, two sports lumberjacks compete simultaneously in four events, which they must complete without interruption, against a time limit.

During the Stock Saw, the athletes work with a brand new chainsaw in factory condition. The competitors have to cut a regular disc from a horizontally fixed log. In addition to speed, precise start, the correct cutting angle and controlled use of force are also crucial. In the Underhand Chop, competitors stand on a horizontally placed, specially turned log and cut through the tree beneath them with an axe. The feat requires a serious sense of balance and concentration, as the athletes work just a few centimeters from their own feet, while regularly cutting through the log on both sides. The Single Buck is one of the most technical feats. Sports lumberjacks use a nearly two-meter, specially designed handsaw to cut an entire disc from a log fixed on a stand. In this feat, the rhythm of the pulls, the coordination of the body work and the precise guidance of the saw determine a good performance, during which efficiency is at least as important as physical strength. The Standing Block Chop is the most spectacular of the axe feats. Competitors cut through a vertically fixed log, first from one side and then from the other. Explosive power, precise angle selection and the rhythm of the blows decide who can cut through the log in the shortest time.

Throughout the four events, the athletes must maintain not only their strength, but also their stamina and mental focus throughout. The top international competitors complete the entire series in under a minute.

A sport built on the tradition of loggers

STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® started in 1985 and has now become one of the most watched extreme sports series in the world. The sport grew out of the traditions of 19th century Australian, New Zealand, North American and Canadian loggers, and today there are more than 2,000 active competitors in the international field. One of the most prominent events in international sport logging, the World Trophy, returns to the Hungarian capital after 12 years.