Husqvarna hails Hilux NZ Rural Games 2016 as a great success

Husqvarna hails Hilux NZ Rural Games 2016 as a great success

The second annual Hilux New Zealand Rural Games were a huge success and a great celebration for New Zealand’s rural sector. And seeing our kiwi sportsmen dominate their Australian counterparts in many of the trans-Tasman events was an added bonus.

Perfect weather and free entry meant crowd numbers dwarfed those of last year’s event, with an estimated 6,000 people attending the two-day festival held over Waitangi weekend in Queenstown. Around 8,000 spectators watched the ‘Running of the Wools’, where 400 merino sheep were mustered through the town centre streets.

The festival celebrates the ‘sports that built the nation’ and saw competitors participate in 13 national and trans-Tasman championships including coal shovelling, wood chopping, speed shearing, speed fencing, gumboot throwing, speed gold panning, wine-barrel racing, cherry stone spitting, egg throwing/catching and speed tree climbing.

As well as being a major sponsor of the event, Husqvarna sponsored the Woodchopping and Speed Fencing events, providing equipment for the competitions as well as prizes.

The ANZAXE Trans-Tasman Wood Chopping Championship in association with Husqvarna and Cutting Edge Sport saw the four-man team of Kiwi woodsmen (including Shane Jordan – older brother of Husqvarna-sponsored Jack Jordan -Adam Lowe, Kyle Lemon and David McDonald) beat their Aussie rivals in a non-stop relay featuring the stock saw, underhand, single saw and standing block disciplines.

The Speed Fencing title was taken out for the second year running by Matt Jones of Levin, with second place going to Tom Dingle of Papakura. Husqvarna gear was used by all competitors in the Speed Fencing.

The Husqvarna brand has a strong affiliation with New Zealand’s rural sector and Games founder Steve Hollander said Husqvarna’s support was a big part of what made the event so successful.

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy opened the Games and paid tribute to the importance of the primary sector and rural communities. “The primary sector is hugely important to the New Zealand economy. It’s worth $40 billion a year in GDP and, if you break that down, that’s about $4 million an hour. We export to about 150 countries and feed about 40 million people. A lot of these sports events here today are typical of what goes on at a farm on a daily basis,” said Mr Guy.

high-res images can be downloaded here

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