Waikato axeman wins world champs

Tuesday, 28 October 2025

Jack Jordan, pictured here during the ‘hot-saw’ round of the world championships held in Milan, Italy, over the weekend.

Taumarunui’s Jack Jordan has won the Stihl Timbersports World Championship individual title - cementing his position as one of the best axemen on the planet.

New Zealand’s top axeman, and three-time winner of the short-form World Trophy title, won the competition after beating Australian legend Brayden Meyer in the final held in Milan, Italy on Sunday morning.

Jordan went one better than his frustratingly close second place finish at last year’s event.

Taumarunui’s Jack Jordan now holds both of the world’s top individual wood chopping titles after his win in Italy.

In the 12-strong field, Jordan was jostling for the top spot in a battle for first and second with Meyer right up until the last of six disciplines - the volatile hot-saw (super-powered chainsaw).

It was a hot-saw hiccup that cost Jordan the title last year.

This time, under immense pressure, he calmed his nerves, and the high-powered machine, to perform a personal best time of 6.3 seconds and win his first individual world championship crown.

“It was tough all day – a dog fight all day,” Jordan said.

“But I knew it was going to be.

Jordan beat Australian legend Brayden Meyer, left, and top Polish chopper Szymon Groenwald (third) to the world title in Italy.

“Leading up to this competition, I didn’t train too much on the chopping events, I just focussed on my weaker events, and they were the three events that I won.

“So [I’m] really happy that the targeted training paid off and yeah, came away with the gold.”

It was the 28-year-old King Country farmer’s third appearance at an individual World Championship - the more traditional, long-form format across six different wood-chopping and sawing disciplines.

Jordan has already won the faster-format Stihl Timbersports World Trophy competition - a knock-out format held over four disciplines - three consecutive times.

Jordan joins the illustrious company of the sport’s Kiwi legends Jason Wynyard and David Bolstad as the only other Kiwis to win the coveted Timbersports World Championship individual title.

Jordan finished the competition just four points ahead of Meyer with Poland’s Szymon Groenwald third.

He 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 at the New Zealand nationals held in March.

Jordan also led the four-man New Zealand team that placed fourth in the teams competition also held over the weekend.

Australia, Sweden and Poland finished in the top three places respectively, leading to a seventh consecutive team victory for the Australian ‘Chopperoos’.

New Zealand last won the World Championship teams title in 2017.