Spruce Timber Logging in Forest during sunset. Photo: IC

Sixteen athletes from around the world sent woodchips flying on Saturday in an unusual competition, as they battled it out for the Timbersports World Trophy. 

On a stage in front of the Austrian capital's imposing city hall, spectators looked on as the entrants faced off against each other to chop up wood as quickly as possible in a variety of disciplines. "Most of the competitors are lumberjacks," said Jean-Noel Raynaud from Stihl France, the company that organizes the competition. Marcel Dupuis, a 36-year-old Canadian weighing in at 110 kilograms and 1.8 meters tall, has been steeped in this world since an early age.

"I've always been interested in this because I've cut wood all my youth," he told AFP, adding that though he is a fireman in his day job, "several generations" of his family have poured their hearts and soul into woodcutting. "It's something I'd like to pass on to my children. It's part of life, part of nature," he says.