By Yevgeny Oleinikov
Professional chainsaw operators gathered near Kaunas for the open air event. Four forestry workers from the Minsk Region competed against others from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, showing their ability to quickly fell a tree with a petrol-powered chainsaw. Within three minutes, the competitors had to fell a tree to land in a specific location, before sawing the trunk into discs no thinner than 3cm and no thicker than 8cm. Additionally, they were prohibited from allowing their chainsaw to touch the wet sawdust lying beneath each trunk. Finally, the competitors vied for supremacy in cutting off thirty branches from surrounding trees.
The judges assessed the quality of work and the observation of safety regulations. Unfortunately, our Belarusians failed to win gold. Their three silver and five bronze medals at the Lithuanian championship are worthy of respect however. Victor Zaremba, Yuri Nesterovich, Nikolay Yaroshik and Anatoly Andron are preparing for Belarus’ Open Championship Woodcutter-2011, held in August in Raubichi, near Minsk. Twenty teams from various European countries have been invited to take part and, in 2012, Raubichi is to host the World Chainsaw Championship.
