Woodchopping: Jordan smashes world record in title win

New Zealand’s Jack Jordan put on a logger sports masterclass in Milan, Italy, today as he set an incredible world record in the final of the 2024 STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Trophy to win the competition for the third time in a row.

Jordan’s stunning ‘three-peat’ capped off a thrilling day of axe-tion with Czech Republic’s Matyáš Klíma and USA’s Matt Cogar finishing second and third respectively.

After ending the challenges of European contenders Armin Kugler and Ferry Svan in the Round of 16 and quarter final, Jordan survived a dramatic semi-final to face Klíma, who had dispatched Canada’s Geoff Larkin, Italy’s Andrea Rossi and USA’s Matt Cogar in another dramatic semi-final.

Jordan stunned the Italian crowd with a world record time of 52.53 seconds to sweep aside the Czech athlete and cement his position as the dominant World Trophy athlete of the era, adding to titles in 2022 and 2023.

In the small final, Cogar atoned for a disappointing semi-final disqualification against eventual runner-up Klíma by stopping De Losa’s attempts to repeat his third-place finish in 2022, coming home in an impressive time of 59.36 seconds.

Taking place in the cityscape surrounds of the Allianz MiCo Convention Centre, the World Trophy saw the 16 highest ranking TIMBERSPORTS® athletes in the Trophy format go head-to-head in a series of knockout match-ups across four back-to-back disciplines: Stock Saw, Underhand Chop, Single Buck and Standing Block Chop.

Semi-final drama precedes world record final
Jordan’s world record shot was almost denied by Brad De Losa in a dramatic semi-final which saw the Kiwi edge his Antipodean rival by the smallest of margins. In a virtual dead heat, Jordan squeezed into the final with a time of 57.65, just 0.32 seconds faster than De Losa’s 57.97.

An equally dramatic semi-final followed for very different reasons, Cogar disqualified due to leaving his chainsaw running after completing the Stock Saw, an error which allowed Klíma to progress to his first final. The Czech athlete was delighted to go all the way in a competition which has been traditionally dominated by the athletes of USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The World Trophy represented a pinnacle career moment for Italy’s Andrea Rossi, who had the opportunity to perform in front of a passionate home crowd. His competition got off to the perfect start after he advanced to the quarter finals at the expense of Poland’s Michał Dubicki. His journey ended there at the hands of Klíma, but an overall finish of eighth from the field of 16 represented a respectable effort on a momentous evening for the Italian.

Jack Jordan, 2024 World Trophy Champion: “It’s great to be here and to get another win. There’s a lot of hard work and effort that goes into it at home and I truly believe that when you’re in an event like this, you win it in your backyard at home. I’d like to thank the New Zealand team who brought us over here and looked after us and I’d also like to thank everyone back home – we couldn’t do it without you. I didn’t really know what was going on there [the world record], even when I was coming off it was a little bit of a strange feeling. I’m over the moon to get a world record like that.”