STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® is delighted to announce the first ever virtual international competition in its history, with the Virtual European Championship 2020. The virtual competition replaces the cancelled Individual World Championship and will see the original extreme sport crown its first ever virtual European Champion on Sunday 27th December.
The Virtual European Championship will see 14 of the very best woodchopping and sawing athletes from around the continent go blade-to-blade from different locations to determine this season’s Virtual European Champion.
The field will be made up of the 10 national qualifiers from national competitions held this year, along with last year’s national champions from Great Britain, Hungary, Romania and Norway. The four countries were unable to hold official national competitions this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full details about the 14 competing athletes can be found in the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® competition database here.
Each athlete will compete from separate locations in their home countries, observing local hygiene requirements, between 30th November and 10th December. The usual STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Individual round format will apply, with the athletes taking on six traditional logging disciplines including the Underhand Chop, Standing Block Chop, Springboard, Single Buck, Stock Saw and Hot Saw.
The athletes will accumulate points based on their times in the six disciplines, however the times from the Single Buck and Springboard will only count for the best eight athletes to progress to the second round, whilst the Hot Saw will only be counted for the best six athletes after the completion of round two.
All performances will be observed by STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® officials and the times and video footage will be sent to and approved by official judges.
Although the 14 athletes will compete from 30th November to 10th December, they – and the rest of the world – will not find out who has been crowned the first ever virtual European Champion until the competition is aired globally ‘as-live’ on Sunday 27th December. The Virtual European Championship will be streamed globally on the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.tv channels at 2:30pm CET.
The world class TIMBERSPORTS® action will not end with the Virtual European Championship. An additional competition, the Virtual European Hot Saw Challenge, will be streamed across the same channels at 2:30pm CET on Saturday 2nd January to ensure the 2021 TIMBERSPORTS® season gets off to a razor-sharp start.
About STIHL TIMBERSPORTS®
STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® is an international extreme sports competition series. Its roots lie in Australia and New Zealand as well as in Canada and the United States. Today the world’s best athletes compete in national and international events featuring three axe disciplines and three sawing disciplines. Springboard, Underhand Chop and Standing Block Chop are the classic axe disciplines; Single Buck (single-man cross-cut saw), Stock Saw (standard chain saw) and Hot Saw (tuned, customized chain saw with up to 80 horsepower) are the sawing disciplines. Athletes compete against each other and the clock. For more information on the sport, the tools and the wood management please visit: www.stihl-timbersports.com
