World Logging Championship in Estonia

In Tartu, Estonia's second largest city, the world's best in professional logging from 20 nations competed for medals at the 34th World Logging Championship 2023.

Mathias Morgenstern from Austria, who competed with a STIHL MS 500i, became the new world champion. Second, third and fourth place also went to athletes with chainsaws from STIHL. In the U24 ranking, Ricardo Michalik from Germany - also using an MS 500i - managed to win the competition.

Overall, the participants, who were equipped with STIHL chainsaws, were extremely successful and captured more than half of the trophies with 45 of the 75 medals to be awarded.

In front of several hundred enthusiastic spectators, some 100 contestants from 20 nations competed for the prestigious medals at the World Logging Championships (WLC) in Tartu. These were awarded in the five disciplines of target felling, chain change, combination cutting, precision cutting and delimbing. The focus was on the virtuosity in the use of the chainsaw during the course of the competitions, which were modeled on the traditional tasks in forestry harvesting. The world championship, which is held every two years, is decided on the basis of safety, precision and speed, with only a few seconds and millimeters deciding victory or defeat this year as well.

Thus, Mathias Morgenstern from Austria won the world championship title in the overall ranking by a very tight decision. Ultimately, he scored 1,673 points what put him just three scores ahead of runner-up Ole Harald Løvenskiold Kveseth of Norway (1,670 scores), thus winning the gold medal. The gap between second and third-placed Jürgen Erlacher (1,667 scores) from Austria was also only three points. Morgenstern, like 39 other competitors, participated with a STIHL MS 500i with electronic fuel injection. The U24 rankings were also close: Ricardo Michalik from Germany (1,643 scores) won the title with only four points ahead of the runner-up Peeter Mitt (1,639 scores) from the host country Estonia.

In addition to the individual competitions and the resulting overall ranking, the team performance was also honored with precious metal. The title was won by the athletes from Austria with 4,955 scores ahead of teams from Switzerland (4,825 points) and Germany (4,825 points).

In total, 75 times precious metal was awarded at these world championships, 25 gold, silver and bronze medals each in the U 24, women's and  professional rankings. Of these, 15 gold, silver and bronze medals each went to athletes equipped with STIHL chainsaws. They thus won well over half of all the medals awarded.