Northland legend Jason Wynyard focus of Kiwi World Timbersports team

Northland woodchopping legend Jason Wynyard died last month. The country’s top axeman Jack Jordan hopes to win this weekend’s world title in tribute to the nine-time world champion.

When Northland woodchopping legend Jason Wynyard died last month, it left a big mark on the country’s axemen who had grown up under his watchful eye.

And this weekend, the country’s current top axeman, Jack Jordan, hopes to win the top title at the Timbersports World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, to honour the former nine-time world champ Wynyard.

Jordan intends to honour the memory of his old teammate and competitor by winning the World Championship on Saturday and Sunday.

In doing so Jordan will join the sport’s illustrious company of Wynyard and David Bolstad (who won in 2007) as the only other Kiwi to ever win the coveted title.

Wynyard won the World Championship event a record nine times during his legendary wood-chopping career, but fell agonisingly short in his quest for 10 titles last year.

”Both myself and the rest of the New Zealand team attending these world championships know that although Jason won’t be competing, his presence will still be keenly felt by us and all the other international axemen at the event,” Jordan said.

Jack Jordan celebrates his World Trophy win in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in June.

The 27 year-old King Country farmer earned the right to be the sole New Zealand representative in the individual competition at these World Championships after he topped a 10-strong field including Wynyard at the NZ National STIHL Timbersports finals in March this year.

Jordan already holds the world record for the faster-format STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Trophy competition that he won in June in the Netherlands. This weekend’s World Championship event in Stuttgart is the more traditional, long-form format across six different wood-chopping and sawing disciplines.

Jordan will also compete alongside the New Zealand team in the teams’ competition being held the day before his individual event at these World Champs.

Wynyard was diagnosed with stage four Burkitt Lymphoma in May, a rare and aggressive cancer that affects the lymphatic system.

Wynyard is unparalleled in wood chopping timber sports. He was recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2017, being made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM).

He started wood chopping at age 6, encouraged by his late father Pae - himself an accomplished axeman - and turned professional in 1996.

Wynyard won the individual world championship nine times and the 49-year-old also claimed the Stihl Timbersports Series 14 times.