|
TEAM U.S.A. Competing in Sydney Australia
 April, 2002
 Sponsored by Stihl Chainsaws, & Carhartt Clothing
|
|

The United States Axemen's Asssociation would like to congratulate the
US National Team for their successful trip to Australia where they
represented their country in the most prestigous international event in
Lumberjack sports worldwide. For the 3rd time in as many years the US
has been able to field a strong team of competitors to face off against
the best in the world in the International Relay competition at the
Sydney Royal Easter Show, thanks to the sponsorship of Stihl Inc USA.
Thanks Stihl, without your support the incredible improvement our
competitors have shown over the past few years would never have been
possible! While the US continues to struggle to beat the incredibly
strong New Zealand and Australian teams in the Sydney hard woods, we get
closer every year and the overseas competitors that we face are now
recognizing Team USA as a real threat to their continued dominance of
the sport of wood chopping.


Team USA stands for the playing of our National Anthem.
|

This year's International Relay was one of the most closely contested in
recent years with great teams fielded by host Australia, New Zealand and
the United States. While Canada's axemen were represented at the Royal
Easter Show, they were unable to field a team to compete in this event
for 2002. Australia is the defending champion of this event and the
partisan crowd was behind them in the packed Olympic Baseball Stadium
where the races were held again this year. Unfortunately for the
Aussies, the screams of 50,000 fans were not enough to help them
overcome an incredibly powerful New Zealand team which managed narrow
wins in all three trials of the 2002 race.
Each of the races in this best of three series started out differently
although they did all end up the same with NZ winning, Oz in second and
the US a close third. In the first race the US team jumped out to an
 Dave Jewett cutting a Standing Block.
|
early lead behind the dominating chopping of interim captain Matt Bush
of New York. Matt flew through the first underhand chop of the race,
easily ahead of the other teams and Wisconsin resident Brad Turner was
able to keep the US team even through the 2nd event, the standing block
chop. Unfortunately for the US team equipment difficulties made it
impossible to maintain this pace through the single handed sawing event
and we fell behind coming out of the back to back single and double
handed sawing events, which were ably performed by Paul Pfenninger, Mike
Eash and Mike Slingerland who hail from NY, PA and NC respectively.
Behind in the race and with the hardest wood coming up for the chops of
Rob Waibel (OR) and Dave Jewett (NY), all the US team could do was watch
as their lead disintegrated and they fell from a stunning first place
upset all the way down to third behind both the New Zealand and
Australian teams.
In the second race it was Australia that jumped out to the early lead
only to have their hopes for a first place showing dashed by the
masterful chopping of the New Zealand cutters, led by team captain David
Bolstad. The US Team never led in this race as disaster struck in the
very first block, once again cut by Matt Bush. Bolstered by his
incredible performance in the first race Matt gave it everything he had
in an attempt to once again give the US team a lead they could build
upon. Unfortunately this time he may have given it a little too much,
as his block came apart underneath him. With slabs and pieces of his
block all around, Matt struggled with balancing on the remaining pieces
to finish without disqualification as the other teams were able to gain
a comfortable lead that the US found impossible to overcome. NZ came
from behind to beat Australia and the US finished respectably close
thanks to terrific chops by both Rob Waibel of Oregon and Dave Jewett of
New York.
In the third and final race of the International Relay the excitement of

Group photo of Team USA.
|
a close race was back as all three teams were virtually tied through the
first event. In the second event NZ slowly pulled ahead and in fact
seemed to add slightly to their lead with each succeeding event. In the
end, despite some of the best sawing and chopping that the US team had
done all week, the final standings remained NZ first, Australia second
and the United States in third.
The US team is now looking forward to the return of team captain Mel
Lentz and top standing block cutter Arden Cogar Jr for the up coming
races against Team Canada in Webster Springs, WV this May. Due to
training injuries to these men as well as to top sawyer Mike Forrester,
the US team was without their services in Sydney, but hopes to take
advantage of their return in our much anticipated rematch of last
year's North American Cup challenge against Canada (which will be filmed
for broadcast on OLN this fall). With the sponsorship of Stihl Inc, the
number one outdoor power equipment manufacturer in the world, and
Carhartt makers of workwear and rugged outdoor wear, the US expects to
once again emerge holding the Cup.
Team USA Main Page
USAA Site Directory
Article by Michael Slingerland
Page Design By StarInfo
© 2002 USAA
Access No. 3216
|