The best of the best in axe throwing will be at Centennial Park in Liverpool this weekend for the inaugural Canadian National AXE Throwing Championships.
In fact, the prestigious event has attracted more that 80 competitors from as far away as Ireland, Sweden and the UK to compete against some of the US and Canada’s best.
Up for grabs, a grand prize of $11,000 CAD.
Axe Thrower, Ashley Glover, is in town for the event from Wicklow, Ireland and says they have to practice hard to prepare for a competition like this one.
“We had a couple of big competitions recently, one in Ireland, one in Sweden, one outside Frankfurt in Germany and this is the first time we’ve come over to the big competition in the Canadian Championships so we’re really looking forward to competing,” says Glover.
Darren Hudson, a World Champion log roller and 20-year lumberjack veteran from Barrington, is spearheading the event this weekend.
He says they typically use a double bit axe (blades on two sides of the axe head) which is thrown at the target from a distance of roughly 20 feet. That target itself sits roughly 1.5 metres or 5 feet off the ground.
The axes themselves are also typically of a certain weight.
“Lighter could mean that on a windy day, the axe could veer a bit and come off target, so the heavier the axe is encouraged because you’re definitely going to get better and much more stable results,” says Hudson.
Also on hand for the event is Swedish Axe Throwing Champion, Daniel Hedberg, current UK Double Bit Axe Throwing Champion, Heath Dawson.
Qualifying gets under way Saturday morning (August 25th) starting at 10am, while the Championship Finals are slated for Sunday morning (August 26th) beginning at 11am.
For more information, click HERE.
Story by Craig Power
Twitter: @CraigTPower
Email: power.craig@radioabl.ca
Above Photo: Contributed by WildeAxe Halifax. © 2018 Darren Hudson.
