2017 STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Australian Championship

Presented by AMAROK V6

Proving he is still king of the sport, New South Welsh man Brad De Losa took the Australian Champion title for a 2nd year running and secured his spot on the Chopperoos.

The win sets him up to compete in the Individual Competition at the 2017 STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Championship, in Lillehammer Norway next month.

He will also compete in the Team relay competition, with the Chopperoos looking to win the World Champion title for a 4th consecutive year.

De Losa's Chopperoos teammates are Bradyen Meyer (Vic), Laurence O'Toole (Vic). Glen Gillam (Vic) and wild card Mitch Argent (Qld).

How the day unfolded for De Losa
De Losa got off to a steady start, chipping away at the disciplines and slowly creeping up the rankings.

He set a new PB in the standing block and posted the fastest time of the day, only to be knocked off the top spot by Queensland's Mitch Argent. He also backed the PB up with another one on the underhand chop, two disciplines that are usually his weakest.

It was later in the day that De Losa really shone and it all came down to the final discipline of the day, the hot saw.

Going into the last two heats of the day, any of the top four stood the chance of taking the Australian Champion title.

Laurence O'Toole set the stage alight with a 6.55 second cut to take the provisional lead, with only De Losa and Meyer left to compete.

Meyer needed to better a time of 15.82 secs to claim the title and it looked like he had it in the bag, while De Losa knew he needed to reproduce his record-breaking form in the hot saw to stand any chance of winning the day.

You can't afford ay errors in this cut throat format and Meyer's day came crashing down when a lapse of concentration meant he didn't press his hot saw decompression value to ensure an easy start.

This caused his saw to not start meaning all eyes shifted to De Losa who knew he had to better O'Toole's time of 6.55 secs to win…and he did it in an outstanding 6.38 secs.

Next stop Norway.

FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
Brad De Losa (NSW)           34
Brayden Meyer (Vic)            33
Laurence O'Toole (Vic)        32
Glen Gillam (Vic)                  28
Jamie Head (Qld)                 25
Kody Steers (Tas)                25
Matt Gurr (Tas)                    20
Mitch Argent (Qld)               19