LILLEHAMMER, Norway — Medaling is nice.
Branden Sirguy of Port Angeles knows this.
He earned a silver medal in Austria in 2010 and a bronze in Holland in 2011.
But Sirguy wants something more at the 2012 Stihl Timbersports World Championships today and Saturday in Lillehammer, Norway.
“I need a gold to complete the set,” Sirguy said with a laugh.
Sirguy, a forester at Merrill & Ring who has lived in Port Angeles since 2004, qualified for the world championships in June at the United States championships in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Thanks to his strong underhand chop performance, Sirguy will participate in today’s relay competition along with more than 100 competitors from 23 different countries.
Sirguy likes the United States’ chances to finally strike gold.
“This is probably the strongest contingent of United States athletes that has ever headed to the world championships,” he said.
Also on the relay team are Matt Cogar, who qualified with the standing block, Dave Jewett on the single buck and Warrick Hallett on the stock saw.
Arden Cogar, Jr. will compete for the overall world title Saturday after winning the United States championship in June.
Sirguy points out that not only are Americans represented by the U.S. champ and top four finishers in each of the disciplines, but they are also sending the top four all-around finishers at the U.S. championship – Arden Cogar, Matt Cogar, Jewett and Sirguy.
This makes the American team especially tough since competitors can be shifted around to the event they are performing the best in during the early rounds of the bracketed event.
Though Sirguy qualified in the underhand chop and it is his strongest event, it isn’t necessarily the event he will participate in at the world championships.
Along with the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada are the traditional powers in Timbersports.
But Stihl has worked to make Timbersports a global event.
And though they are relatively new to the sport, the European countries have embraced it.
“Europeans take [Timbersports] very seriously, I’ve come to discover,” Sirguy said.
“They [European nations] are quickly catching up.”
He adds that the Europeans have re-invented the sport.
“At logging shows in the U.S., you pull up in a truck with your gear in the back and have a picnic in the field,” Sirguy said.
“In Europe, everything is on a stage, and [competitors] need to show their security card to even get to the stage.
“It is very much a big deal. There is a whole lot of national pride. It gets pretty crazy with the fans — they’re loud, standing and cheering.
“There is a lot of pomp and circumstance; you truly feel like a world champion.”
For Sirguy, though, competing in Timbersports is about more than the competition and medals.
It’s also about preserving history.
Sirguy grew up in what he calls a “timber-based community” in Deming.
There he was exposed to logging shows and the importance of the logging industry.
He also witnessed logging’s decline in importance throughout the Pacific Northwest.
To him, Timbersports is a connection to the past.
“Logging was a major part of the settling and development of this region we live in,” Sirguy said. “It’s part of our culture.”
“One thing I enjoy is keeping the history alive.”
Though familiar with logging shows, Sirguy didn’t start competing in Timbersports until the late 1990s when he was attending the University of Washington.
Despite always having an interest in the settling of the West, his reason for starting wasn’t quite that deep.
“It looked fun,” he said.
And now, 15 years later, he is poised to make his third trip to the world championships and hoping to bring home the one medal that has eluded him.
The Timbersports world championships will be streamed live, starting at 10 a.m., at http://www.stihltimbersports.us.
