Andres Olesk wins gold medal at international logging championships 01.10
September 24-26, international logging championships were held in Zagreb, Croatia, where Estonia’s loggers, too, displayed their skills.The title of the international champion amongst individual professionals was earned by Andres Olesk.Amongst teams, Estonia's team took honourable third place.
Estonia’s team included Taavi Ehrpais, Andres Olesk, and Anto Laas; with Erik Rist competing in the junior class, Arno Skuin providing technical support, and Aarne Liiders serving as team captain.All together, 122 men and 32 teams competed in the professional and junior classes of the international logging championships.Competitions were held in five individual disciplines:mast felling, fitting another chain, bucking by combined cut, precision cut and limbing.
According to team captain Aarne Liiders, the Croatians had done a very good job of preparing for the championships, with many details considered; however, the weather conditions during the competition were not favourable.As a result, in part, there were numerous errors, and several competitors performed below expectations.Our men, too, suffered setbacks.
Aarne Liiders comments on the course of the competition:
“Anto did fell the tree on the post; however, the tree broke, and the result could not be measured (hitting the post brought grief to others as well).
A new attempt ended in a deviation of about half a metre.Taavi’s tree, too, fell about that far.In fitting another chain, only Anto performed well.In one of his favourite disciplines – combined cut – Taavi performed below his standard level by about two dozen points.
Out of 92 pros, only 3 men were able to perform limbing without penalty points.This proliferation of errors in limbing may be considered the record of the championships to date.
In bucking by combined cut, Andres Olesk accumulated 199 points, which is the best result of the championships to date or the official world record.Faultless and relatively fast limbing secured a victory in the discipline, helping to lift Andres from seventh place to international champion.
In honour of Andres, Estonia’s anthem sounded on three occasions:international champion gold medal in bucking by combined cut, in limbing and in the five disciplines overall.The entire team, which won a team bronze, had the chance to sing along to the anthem, in praise of the international champion.
Estonians have won medals before; however, this is the first time that an Estonian man has won the title of international champion in all disciplines overall.As a team, Estonia’s logging men became international champions in 2006.
For further information, go to www.ialc.ch
