Holidays, Big Throwers Meeting, and the EuroThrowers European Championship: that's what Forni Avoltri was for the participants. Those who didn't go to Venice or Croatia afterwards just came from there. Thus most of the international knife- and axe throwers were already on site on Friday - some like John Taylor got there even days before to help with the setup of the targets and laser-precise placement of the distance marks.
The event location in the village of Forni Avoltri is located in the Carnic Alps in northern Italy. From the biathlon-centre* where the competition took place the athletes enjoyed a breathtaking view of the surrounding peaks.
Locally, the event was organised by Gaetano d'Avenia, Gabriella Mestroni and many more helping hands from the club "Giusto verso Carnia throwers". They were so impressed by the ambience last year in Herrischried that hosting the European Championship at their place was "making a dream reality" as Gaetano put it in the opening speech.
On Friday, the participants registered and started training. In the thin air, the twangs and chimes of missed throws were only to be heard as a remote sound.
The competitions started Saturday at 9 o'clock with an opening speech, and shorts explanations about scoring (raise your hand to go to the target with the referee; The European Throwing Rules themselves were applied as fixed in 2010).
87 knife throwers and axe throwers (among them 15 women) participated, besting the old participant record of Villeflambeau. The throwers came from 10 different nations (IT, DE, FR, CZ, CH, RU, UK, US, FI, PL), 6 of the throwing clubs being part of the EuroThrowers had sent representatives. Right after the event "long distance" the social evening commenced: a get-together comodo in the Biathlon restaurant, enriched by a menu consisting of local specialities. Gaetano received a Happy Birthday serenade, and everybody a piece from his cake. Later at night, the terrace was transformed into a dance floor, the DJ playing hits from all the countries present really got the young crowd going. Meanwhile, ten knife throwers returned to the targets and, vision aided by floodlight, competed in the Duel Cup. The winner, Ashot Matevosyan, received half of the starting fees, the rest went in equal parts to the local organisers and the EuroThrowers.
Some participants had equal number of points, so Sunday started with play-offs. The Triplice competition afterwards is a discipline invented by Giusto verso, and involved tactical manoeuvring with distance-point multipliers. In the following award ceremony, the major, district administrator, principal referee Maurizio Davani, Gaetano and Gabriella took turns handing out certificates and prizes (Prosciutto sponsored by Wolf. Four new all-time records were set, amongst others Mimi Dell'Anna improved on her own one in axe 4m to now 87 points.
For the perfect hosting of the Big Throwers Meeting and the European Championship, again many thanks to Gaetano d'Avenia, Gabriella Mestroni and all the helpers from "Giusto verso Carnia throwers".
Complete lists of results, in the following file formats: OpenOffice / Excel / PDF |
Knife 3m (Men)1st place: Ivan Dolgikh (RU), 98 points2nd place: Sylvain Guenegou (FR), 96 points (101*) 3rd place: Philippe Catania (FR), 96 points (97*) | ||
Knife 3m (Women)1st place: Natalia Dolgikh (RU), 75 points2nd place: Olesya Tereshko (RU), 74 points 3rd place: Natalia Slobozhan (RU), 73 points | ||
Knife 5m (Men)1st place: Pascal Boucreux (FR), 87 points2nd place: Walter Steinbeck (DE), 83 points 3rd place: Werner Lengmüller (DE), 80 points (135*) | ||
Knife 5m (Women)1st place: Ksenija Riadnova (RU), 47 points2nd place: Natalia Slobozhan (RU), 44 points 3rd place: Tatjana Dolgikh (RU), 43 points | ||
Knife 7m (Men)1st place: Jiří Žižka (CZ), 68 points2nd place: Pascal Boucreux (FR), 62 points (72*) 3rd place: Peter Kramer (DE), 62 points (52*) | ||
Knife 7m (Women)1st place: Tatjana Dolgikh (RU), 37 points2nd place: Galina Chuvina (RU), 29 points 3rd place: Gabriella Mestroni (IT), 19 points | ||
Knife Long distance (Men)1st place: Cristian Cianciotta (IT), 17.86m2nd place: Christian Buttarello/Geronimo (FR), 17.35m 3rd place: Jiří Žižka (CZ), 16.07m | ||
Knife Long distance (Women)1st place: Olesya Tereshko (RU), 7.05m2nd place: Anne-Laure Pfitzinger (FR), 5.43m 3rd place: Cosima Dell'Anna/Mimì (IT), 5.33m | ||
Axe 4m (Men)1st place: Jiří Žižka (CZ), 100 points2nd place: Gregor Paprocki (PL), 98 points 3rd place: Christian Buttarello/Geronimo (FR), 97 points | ||
Axe 4m (Women)1st place: Cosima Dell'Anna/Mimì (IT), 87 points2nd place: Gabriella Mestroni (IT), 82 points 3rd place: Catherine Ciocca (IT), 66 points | ||
Axe 7m (Men)1st place: Jiří Žižka (CZ), 80 points2nd place: Peter Kramer (DE), 74 points (70*) 3rd place: Stefano Cristini (IT), 74 points (58*) | ||
Axe 7m (Women)1st place: Cosima Dell'Anna/Mimì (IT), 50 points2nd place: Galina Chuvina (RU), 46 points 3rd place: Ksenija Riadnova (RU), 30 points | ||
Axe Long distance (Men)1st place: Peter Kramer (DE), 19.00m1st place: Francesco Martini (DE), 19.00m 3rd place: Pierluigi De Perini (IT), 18.07m | ||
Axe Long distance (Women)1st place: Gabrielle Mestroni (IT), 10.41m2nd place: Natalia Dolgikh (RU), 10.00m 3rd place: Cosima Dell'Anna/Mim (IT), 7.84m | ||
Duel-Cup (additional event out of the scope of the Championship)Winner: Ashot Matevosyan (RU) | ||
Triplice (additional event out of the scope of the Championship)Winner: Walter Steinbeck (DE), trophy handed out by Gaetano D'Avenia (on the right). |
* If there was a tie on the first three places of a discipline, the affected participants each threw new rounds (results given in parentheses), if necessary multiple rounds.. The ranking for the first three was then determined according to the points achieved in the additional rounds.
The maximum number of points attainable in each event was 105.
Alexander Martynov, thank you very much for your invaluable help in transcribing and checking the list of results.
The rules employed were the 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.
Out of the scope of the European Championship, the EuroThrowers duel-cup was held (rules).