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10th Big Throwers Meeting / European Championship in Knife Throwing and Axe Throwing, 25th/26th of September 2010, Rome

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Group photo of the athletes participating in the 10th European Championship in Knife Throwing and Axe Throwing (EuroThrowers association), Rome, September 2010;

Now in its tenth year, the Big Throwers Meeting of the (external link / new window)EuroThrowers was for the first time held as European Championship. A total of 46 athletes from 7 nations (Italy, Germany, France, Russia, USA, Poland, Czech Republic) travelled several thousand kilometres to be part of this historic event1, to compete in knife throwing and axe throwing and chat with fellow throwers about the sport. There was a strong participation of Russia this year, with two groups from (external link / new window)Moscow and (external link / new window)Samara attending. The last mentioned brought a gift for each thrower, and to the organisers presented a special throwing knife (see photo) and a medal with Samara-embossing.

Locally, the championship was organised by the Italian throwing association Associazione Lanciatori Sportivi Italia headed by Americo Sabato, who had much help from his club colleagues, especially Eugenio Jonni. For the weekend, the archers club with which they share the area during the year ceded them some additional lanes for the competition targets. (If the schedule had not been so tight during the days, I would have loved to take the archery introduction offered.) The organisation was handled very professionally, what with an extra 10 arbiters hired (five boys and five girls, from their looks selected to look good on the trophy photos) and all the efficient woman in the arbiter tent.

Mikhail Sedyshev from Samara, Russia, and his group brought quite some presents with them to Rome. Here, a happy Americo Sabato is presented with a throwing knife that has the name of the town cut from the knife handle.

The first international throwers started to arrive on Friday, and instantly began exercising on the training range. The 5 competition targets were of course off-limit. Some of the participants set up their tent on site (respectively their caravan, which one group from southern Germany had crossed the Alps with), others lodged in hotels in the vicinity. The usual bedlam of languages ensued, but most of the throwing-discussion can be accomplished non-verbally. And for the more complicated questions, you soon knew who can translate between which languages.

On Saturday, each participant had to officially register for the competition, with the forms and the (external link / new window)European Knife and Axe Throwing Rules being available in multiple languages. Then each athlete was called by name, and drew a random starting number from a bag. All throwing ranges were being used in parallel, thus when a thrower finished his 21 throws, the arbiter could instantly call the next name on his list (it is astonishing in how many countries the name Michael is popular, and how many ways exist to pronounce it). Around noon, an Italian meal was provided (Primo pasta/lasagne, Secondo roast slices with bread, pickled vegetables), additionally a snack booth was open all day for small refreshments. In the early evening, all standard events were completed, and the throwers and their families went to explore Rome; Some stayed for a few days afterwards, to appropriately savour the Colosseum, the Palatine and the multitude of other sights of the eternal city.

On Sunday, the weather looked rather double-minded, but contended itself with a short shower, which was quickly dried away by the sun. For the long distance event, the big 1m-circle-target had to be erected, for the lack of such huge trees constructed from 9 smaller quadratic blocks. The rules for this event were explained in quite some languages, then one-by-one the throwers demonstrated their distance-sticking skills to a closely watching crowd (an axe stick from 19m was the furthest). When the red flag flew up, indicating that this perfect stick was outside the target circle, groans could be heard all over the place.

The award ceremony was held in the afternoon, with an impressive number of cups being provided by the organisers. As mandated by the rules since 2010, there was a separate rating for the women. The skill level of the throwers in attendance was overall very high, the gaps between the top places thus very narrow. It was quite obvious that the international elite had come to this competition. Two people deserve a special mention here: Richard Wesson (USA), who as first person ever reached 101 points (of 105 possible) in the 3m knife event, and Mickhail Sedyshev (Russia), who was awarded the title of the "total winner" by the organiser, due to his constant presence on the podium.

I am very happy that I could attend such a professionally organised event! It was a pleasure to meet so many fine sportsmen and friends from all over Europe, to chat about the sport, and to throw together. I would be glad to see all again next year at the European Championship, which will be held in Germany or Moscow (will be decided at the end of this year). In the name of the EuroThrowers association, I'd like to thank again the A.L.S.I. club around Americo Sabato and all the voluntary helping hands that made this championship in Rome happen.


Christian Thiel

1 "When I heard that Europe finally has an official championship, I simply had to go there", as Richard Wesson from North Carolina, USA, put it.
AS: Americo Sabato, thank you for the thus marked photos.

Extra page with more pictures in a photo story


Results

Complete lists of results (male and female in one), in the following file formats: OpenOffice / Excel / Overview as PDF


Sedyshev, Wesson, Sembol  

Knife 3m (men)

1st place: Richard Wesson (USA), 101 points
2nd place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 100 points
3rd place: Vladimir Sembol (CZ), 94 points
Cosima, Ksenia, Isabelle  

Knife 3m (women)

1st place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 87 points
2nd place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 74 points
3rd place: Isabelle Oberlin (FR), 53 points
Wesson, Sedyshev, Fedosenko  

Knife 5m (men)

1st place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 90 points
2nd place: Richard Wesson (USA), 81 points
3rd place: Sergey Fedosenko (RU), 78 points
Dell'Anna, Ryadnova, Agafonova  

Knife 5m (women)

1st place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 67 points
2nd place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 50 points
3rd place: Anna Agafonova (RU), 30 points
Catania, Sedyshev, Kramer  

Knife 7m (men)

1st place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 72 points
2nd place: Philippe Catania (FR), 56 points
3rd place: Peter Kramer (DE), 51 points
Dell'Anna, Ryadnova, Agafonova  

Knife 7m (women)

1st place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 36 points
2nd place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 20 points
3rd place: Anna Agafonova (RU), 12 points
Sherstobitov, Buttarello, Führer  

Knife long distance (men)

1st place: Christian Buttarello (FR), 14.90m
2nd place: Andrey Sherstobitov (RU), 14.48m
3rd place: Dieter Führer (DE), 14.13m
Dell'Anna, Ryadnova, Agafonova  

Knife long distance (women)

1st place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 7.26m
2nd place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 7.07m
3rd place: Anna Agafonova (RU), 7.03m
Zizka, Sedyshev, Führer  

Axe 4m (men)

1st place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 99 points
2nd place: Jiří Žižka (CZ), 96 points
3rd place: Dieter Führer (DE), 95 points
Ryadnova, Dell'Anna, Meyer  

Axe 4m (women)

1st place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 67 points
2nd place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 41 points
3rd place: Nathalie Meyer (FR), 35 points
Buttarello, Sedyshev, Cazoulat absent  

Axe 7m (men)

1st place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 87 points
2nd place: Christian Buttarello (FR), 74 points
3rd place: Pierre Cazoulat (FR), 71 points
Agafonova, Dell'Anna, Ryadnova  

Axe 7m (women)

1st place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 27 points
2nd place: Anna Agafonova (RU), 10 points
3rd place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 9 points
Führer, Sedyshev, Buttarello  

Axe long distance (men)

1st place: Mikhail Sedyshev (RU), 19.09m
2nd place: Dieter Führer (DE), 18.60m
3rd place: Christian Buttarello (FR), 16.98m
Dell'Anna, Ryadnova, Agafonova  

Axe long distance (women)

1st place: Ksenia Ryadnova (RU), 7.12m
2nd place: Cosima Dell'Anna (IT), 7.08m
3rd place: Anna Agafonova (RU), 7.02m

Overall rating

The organiser decided to award a price to the overall best thrower of the competitions. By far ahead of the competition, Mikhail Sedyshev (RU) could secure this honor.

The maximum number of points attainable in each event was 105.



Rules used

The rules employed were the (external link / new window)Standard European Knife and Axe throwing rules (2010 version). Accordingly, the following events were held: knife 3m, 5m, 7m, distance, axe 4m, 7m, distance event.

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