The 64th annual Lumberjack World Championships (LWC) will be held in historic, colorful Lumberjack Bowl in Hayward Thursday through Saturday Aug. 1-3, featuring intense competition among timber sports athletes in 24 events, including chopping, sawing, 60-foot and 90-foot pole climbing, log rolling and log boom running.
The LWC will feature more than 100 athletes from six countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Japan. The championships also are a reunion for timber sports athletes from the past years and the present.
Among the returning athletes are the 2023 Tony Wise all-around champions, Matt Cogar from Grafton, West Virginia and Erin LaVoie from Spokane, Washington.
LWC Event Director Samantha LaSalle said the top five men and top five women from last year return this year to fight for the all-around championship. They are: Men—Matt Cogar, Jason Lentz, Lawrence O’Toole, Cassidy Scheer, Caleb Graves and Matt Slingerland; Women—Erin LaVoie, Kate Witkowski, Stephanie Naud, Martha King and Hannah Quigley.
Other champions from 2023 include Tanner Hallett of California in men’s logrolling, Livi Pappadopoulos of Holmen in women’s logrolling, Lily Duffy of Hayward in the women’s boom run and Caleb Graves in the men’s boom run.
Graves, from Seymour, Tennessee, also won the 90-foot and 60-foot speed climbs.
Kate Witkowski of Hayward teamed with Erin LaVoie to win the Jill and Jill cross-cut sawing event and partnered with Matt Cogar to win the Jack and Jill sawing contest last year.
The athletes will compete for $77,000 in prize money.
Thursday and Friday will feature qualifying competition in the afternoon.
Competitors will use a newly-constructed chopping and sawing dock, which was sponsored by ABC Lumber and Peterson Wood Treating Inc.
Gates open at 11:30 a.m. daily, and tickets can be purchased in advance or at the gate.
From 8-11 a.m. Thursday and Friday, spectator admission is free to watch the amateur logrollers compete. Opening ceremonies will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, followed by the professional quarterfinals on Thursday, semifinals on Friday and finals on Saturday.
Each day’s competition will culminate with a crowd favorite, the team relay, combining speed climbing, boom running, single-buck sawing, underhand chopping, and standing block chopping.
On Saturday, seventh and eighth place finals will be held in the chopping events at 1 p.m., followed by a team relay and the axe-throwing contest at 1:30.
While on the grounds at Lumberjack Bowl, visitors can visit the food and souvenir concessions and try their feet and balance at the logrolling tank. The Swinging Axe Beer Tent will have musical entertainment each afternoon, featuring Molly Otis and the Danger Band on Thursday and Steve Beguhn Friday and Saturday.
In addition to the timber sports competition, the Birkie Lumberjack 5K run-walk will be held at 8 am. Saturday Aug. 3, starting and finishing on the Lumberjack Bowl grounds.
For more information, see the special section in this edition of the Record.
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