Nate Hodges claimed his first STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Individual World Championship in front of over 5,000 fans. A dramatic Hot Saw finale left the American in first position despite strong challenges from New Zealand’s Jack Jordan and Canada’s Ben Cumberland, who finished second and third respectively. Hodges’ victory capped an incredible weekend of axe-tion in the South of France, as more than 9,000 fans filled the Zénith Toulouse Métropole over the weekend.
After Australia extended their winning streak in the Team competition on Friday night, winning their fifth consecutive world title, the Individual competition was guaranteed to see a new champion, with no previous winners in the field of 12 who battled it out across all six of the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines: Underhand Chop, Stock Saw, Standing Block Chop, Single Buck, Springboard and Hot Saw.
Nate Hodges took to the all-important ‘Hot Seat’ after a final round score of 5.36 seconds in the iconic Hot Saw discipline. However, with closest challengers Jack Jordan and Ben Cumberland still to compete, Hodges knew his time at the top of the rankings could be cut short at the death.
The Hot Saw never fails to deliver drama and so it provided again, with Jack Jordan forced to cut a fourth cookie to avoid disqualification, taking his time out to 7.84 seconds – still a personal best for the Kiwi – and out of gold medal contention. Ben Cumberland was the final athlete to step up and, having committed to pushing himself to the limit in a discipline he doesn’t favour, he suffered a disqualification which left him to settle for third place, with Jordan taking silver.
Hodges finished the competition with 67 points, with Jordan and Cumberland tied on 61 points, with Jordan taking second place due to his faster time across the six disciplines.Hodges title built on personal bests against wide-open field With no previous world champions in the field this year, a new winner of the Individual competition was guaranteed. Hodges’ victory was ultimately built on three personal bests and an unassailable score in his preferred Springboard discipline.
He opened his competition with a personal best 15.09-second Underhand Chop placing him third, before recovering from a weaker performance in the Stock Saw with personal bests in the Standing Block Chop (14.02 seconds) and Single Buck (11.74 seconds).
A stunning time of 42.73 in the Springboard took him clear of the competition and gave him enough points to hold onto top spot after a strong Hot Saw was bettered only by Sweden’s Ferry Svan.
Up until the Hot Saw, Jordan and Cumberland were the definition of consistency and pushed Hodges all the way with a series of PBs, including national records in the Underhand Chop, Stock Saw and, for Cumberland, Standing Block Chop.
Svan the best of the rest, Meurisse enjoys support of passionate home crowd Sweden’s Ferry Svan came close to a podium finish but despite an unbeaten score in the Hot Saw, he was not able to find enough points in the earlier disciplines to take bronze, finishing with 56 points.
Meanwhile, France’s Alex Meurisse was cheered to the rafters by a partisan crowd, setting personal bests in the Underhand Chop and Standing Block Chop. It was not quite enough to see him through to the second round, with Meurisse amongst the four lowest ranked athletes after the first three disciplines and therefore eliminated from the competition.
2024 Individual World Champion Nate Hodges commented: "I can’t really find the words to describe how this feels. Everyone around me knows how much work I’ve put in to get here. And look at this crowd – I said this last night – it’s the best crowd I’ve ever seen at a TIMBERSPORTS® event in my life.
"If I stood here and thanked everybody then we’d be here for a while but I want to thank my wife up in the crowd, she’s got my back, my kids, my family at home. They’ve all supported me."
New Zealand’s Jack Jordan, who finished as runner-up, said: “You’re always a bit disappointed when you don’t win but to still get silver at the end feels good. We’re going to celebrate tonight and I’m looking forward to bringing the silver medal back to New Zealand.”
Canada’s Ben Cumberland, who won the bronze medal, added: “It’s a little bittersweet. I probably
went for it a little too hard in the Hot Saw, so there’s the realisation that it probably could’ve been more. But everything that happened today happened according to God’s will, so I couldn’t be any happier and I’m very thankful to have a bronze.”
Hodges’ first world title win brought to a close an incredible weekend of elite logger sports, with more than 9,000 fans filling the Zénith Toulouse Métropole as France hosted the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Championships for the first time.
Full results and final standings for the Individual World Championship can be found on the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® database.
