News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By Cailin Cousins 

Twenty-five competitors who travelled from as far away as Thailand and Austria competed in the Annual Williams Lake Loggers Sports Festival last Saturday on the infield of the Stampede Grounds. 

To be fair, Joe Ritcey is actually from Edmonton, but was working in Thailand. Timing worked out just right so that he had to fly directly to Williams Lake for the competition versus stopping at home in Alberta first.  Dave Macleod and Mitch Hewitt are Canadians who had been in Austria competing at the Stihl Finals, where Mitch placed fifth in the World and broke a world record in the Spring Board event.  They flew directly from that competition to Williams Lake where the hectic travel itinerary proved to be irrelevant to Mitch Hewitt since he pulled off first place overall during Saturday's competition. 

(Photo by Danarae Latin)

Local axeman, John Walker, who has organized this event for the past 11 years, placed second overall.  John and Terry Basso won the Double Buck event before he and his wife, Stephanie Ferguson, placed first in the Jack and Jill competition.  Another local and second-generation competitor, Lucas Brown-John secured the first place spot in the Novice Standing Chop.  

"The show went really well," said John Walker.  "The number of competitors is down slightly, mostly due to the economy, but the number of spectators is growing.  Some folks showed up early, which is unusual, and almost everyone stayed until the very end."  John explained that it's a good show for competitors to be able to watch, too.  He said that he will continue to organize this annual event until a successor takes on the challenge and is already looking forwards to next year's event in Williams Lake.

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(Photos by Danarae Latin)

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