Lumberjacks and beauty queens will share
the Columbus stage the weekend of June 27-29. Although the community is familiar with the Miss Georgia Pageant, it’s the first time for timbersports and the competition is starting off with the roar of power saws.

The Aflac Outdoor Games
You’ve no doubt seen the events on ESPN while channel surfing …strong, athletic looking guys chopping through a block of wood in a split second or scaling straight up a pole. You’ve probably been fascinated and hesitated to watch for a while. Now, thanks toWarner Neal and the Columbus Sports Council, you’ll be able to watch the action in person.

Neal is President of Outdoor Events, a Columbus-based sports marketing company that provides event management and planning. He has primarily handled professional golf tournaments, but took a look at timbersports when he was approached about expanding the sport into the Southeast. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved,” Neal said, but he attended his first event and was “blown away with the entertainment value.”

Timbersports are a world-wide phenomenon, according to Neal, with competitors coming from as far away as Australia. The events were derived from traditional logging methods, and many of the athletes were former lumberjacks. The second round and finals of the STIHL Timbersports Series, which will be held at the Columbus South Commons, are considered to be their “Super Bowl.”

The games, sponsored by Aflac, will be recorded for broadcast on ESPN. In addition, women will participate in the boom run across logs floating in water, and men will climb 60-foot poles. Dockdogs and Agilitydogs competitions are also scheduled for the weekend, as well as a national and local barbecue cook-off.

STIHL Timbersports Series
The series, started by STIHL in 1985, involves six disciplines. The goal was to develop a sequence of events that would determine the best overall lumberjack. Winning the title of STIHL Timbersports Champion comes with prizes, appearances and ...

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