New Zealander wins world air guitar title

1.00pm

New Zealand has a new world champion - Tarquin Keys is joint winner of the world air guitar championship after a controversial blunder by judges in Finland.

The Bay of Plenty's master of air snatched a share of the title in Oulu on Saturday after it was originally bestowed on MiRi Park, of the United States.

The judging panel had calculated Mr Keys was tied with Ms Park after two rounds, and decided to settle the title with an air-guitar duel.

Ms Park won the face-off and was awarded the title -- but judges then realised they had tallied the initial scores incorrectly, and Mr Keys had won the initial rounds with a near-perfect score.

The three judges then decided to award the title jointly.

There was no word on how the prize of a $5000-plus handmade Finnish Flying Finn guitar would be split between the winners.

New Zealand air guitar organiser Brett Provost, described air guitar as "bare metal" or someone pretending to play the guitar to a backing track.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES