Second Big Throwers Meeting in Pullman City/Germany, October 2005

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Extra page: picture gallery
Links: (external link / new window)French report / (external link / new window)pictures

Group photo with all knife and axe throwers.

For the second time, we had a thrower meeting in the wild west theme park (external link / new window)Pullman City in the Bavarian Forest, Germany. During the weekend of the 7th-9th of October knife throwers and axe throwers met to compete and have fun. Having been declared as the Big Throwers Meeting and hence the central event of the European throwing community, the international participation was high. There German participants were outnumbered by those from France and even two from Finland, the average thrower traveled 870km to get here (for you Americans: in Europe, this is quite some distance!)

Friday was as usual intended for the people to arrive on site and settle down. Despite problems with changed flights all international guests were brought on site till the evening. Most throwers slept in the nearby (external link / new window)hotel Passauer Hof, some set up their tent for free at the theme park (perhaps the better choice: "It's simply fabulous to have breakfast in front of your tent in the morning sun and then do some test throws, right beside a snorting bison herd browsing the grass."). After a short inspection of the competition targets, we ended the evening in the saloon, with a live band and rodeo videos.

On Saturday the competitions started (later than scheduled) at 11 o'clock. The competition ground was again a pasture, something which had proven to be nearly perfect for our kind of event during the last years, due to the amount of space it provides and the barriers being naturally in place already. Attracted by advertisement in the theme park, quite some interested spectators came to look, all being very safety-aware and respecting the safety regulations. After doing some trial throws, some spectators where "hooked" and promised to train and come back next year.
There were 5 targets reserved for the competition, into which each thrower would have 4 throws per event (totalling 20 throws/event, with an extra 5th training throw per target). Compared with the 7 targets we had in previous events, this setting was much easier to overlook for the main arbiter, reducing the waiting times during the competition. The points were taken down by 5 arbiters on the personal sheets of the throwers. As usual, these arbiters were participants who would in the next round switch places with the people just throwing. Many throwers liked that the release of the throws was given orally and not using a whistle. Before lunch, we completed the events knives 3m and 5m, after a meal in one of the food stalls in the theme park, the axe 4m and 7m events were held. The change of the distance markers on the ground, colored plastic barrier bands fixed with iron rods, was accomplished in nearly no time. But despite that, the sun was already near the horizon when the last 5 throwers had hurled their axes, and the distance events had to be postponed till the next day.
Nearly all participants had dinner at the hotel, where we sat together till late in the night, discussing and making friends. The hotel musician contributed to the cultural education of the guests with a round of "schunkeln".

Micheal explains the knife throwing technique to spectators. Sunday started off with a members meeting of the European Throwing Club "Flying Blades" ((external link / new window)Eurothrowers). The meeting took 1½ hours and was held in three languages (E/F/D), some members who could not make it this weekend had transferred their votes to participating persons. After a review of the work done so far, the managing committee (Maier, Thiel, Catania) was reelected unanimously, then, among other things, the focus of future work (weapon laws in Europe) was decided.
Afterwards, everybody proceeded quickly to Pullman City, where the distance event knives was held. Unfortunately there was no time for the axe one, as we staged a show for the visitors of the theme park half past noon in the riding hall: after a short introduction into the sport and a mock competition, the throwers demonstrated with much enthusiasm their skills at the big wooden target wall. A highlight was a knife that was thrown so that it stuck in the handle of the previous one ((external link / new window)picture)! In the following session, interested spectators were shown the basic throwing technique and could do some trial throws. This offer was taken up so enthusiastically that one of the targets broke down in the process. After a late lunch, many participants had to travel home already, so that not all could receive their winners certificates and prices (3 Professional Throwing Knife replicas produced and donated by Dieter Führer, 1 TFT thrower donated by me) in person later in the awarding ceremony.

Many thanks to the management of Pullman City, who provided the location and the targets, and to the participants (esp. Michael and Claude) who assisted me as arbiters and in organisational matters!

I think that everybody had much fun at this event, and chances are good that I can organise it again next year.

Christian Thiel

see also: picture gallery


The official results

Knife Short

Place 1 Gregor Paprocki 75 points
Place 2 Pierre-Luc Cornille 68 points
Place 3 Claude Neufsel 67 points
Place 4 Michel Dujay 66 points
Place 5 Christian Buttarello 65 points
Place 5 Michael Pahl 65 points
Place 7 Benjamin Simon 61 points
Place 7 Dieter Führer 61 points
Place 9 Peter Kramer 54 points
Place 10 Norbert Maier 49 points
Place 11 Kari Salonius 47 points
Place 12 Christian Thiel 42 points
Place 13 Philippe Catania 26 points
Place 14 Salonius 2 24 points
Place 15 Sigrid Hansen 14 points


Knife Middle

Place 1 Benjamin Simon 64 points
Place 2 Philippe Catania 55 points
Place 3 Gregor Paprocki 49 points
Place 4 Pierre-Luc Cornille 47 points
Place 5 Michael Pahl 44 points
Place 6 Michel Dujay 43 points
Place 7 Claude Neufsel 40 points
Place 8 Christian Buttarello 39 points
Place 8 Kari Salonius 39 points
Place 10 Norbert Maier 27 points
Place 11 Peter Kramer 25 points
Place 12 Dieter Führer 22 points
Place 12 Salonius 2 22 points
Place 14 Christian Thiel 13 points
Place 15 Sigrid Hansen 0 points


Axe Short

Place 1 Christian Buttarello 63 points
Place 1 Michael Pahl 63 points
Place 3 Dieter Führer 60 points
Place 4 Claude Neufsel 59 points
Place 5 Pierre-Luc Cornille 58 points
Place 5 Michel Dujay 58 points
Place 5 Gregor Paprocki 58 points
Place 8 Kari Salonius 57 points
Place 8 Benjamin Simon 57 points
Place 10 Salonius 2 53 points
Place 11 Philippe Catania 52 points
Place 12 Norbert Maier 46 points
Place 13 Christian Thiel 32 points


Axe Middle

Place 1 Dieter Führer 45 points
Place 2 Micheal Pahl 43 points
Place 3 Philippe Catania 37 points
Place 3 Michel Dujay 37 points
Place 5 Gregor Paprocki 36 points
Place 6 Christian Buttarello 34 points
Place 7 Norbert Maier 32 points
Place 8 Pierre-Luc Cornille 29 points
Place 9 Simon Benjamin 27 points
Place 9 Salonius 2 27 points
Place 11 Kari Salonius 26 points
Place 12 Claude Neufsel 22 points
Place 13 Christian Thiel 16 points


Knife Distance

Distance Record: Michel Dujay with 13.16m

Place 1 Philippe Catania 22 points
Place 2 Michel Dujay 18 points
Place 3 Dieter Führer 16 points
Place 4 Claude Neufsel 13 points
Place 5 Benjamin Simon 7 points
Place 6 Gregor Paprocki 6 points
Place 7 Pierre-Luc Cornille 5 points
Place 7 Norbert Maier 5 points
Place 8 Christian Buttarello 0 points
Place 8 Peter Kramer 0 points
Place 8 Michael Pahl 0 points


The rules were as follows:

Select your throwing knife


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German: Werfertreffen Pullman City 2005