Bolstads rule the saw

RENO -- It was a family affair Thursday at the opening day of the Great Outdoor Games at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park, especially for one from New Zealand.

Fans of all ages filled the stands to see David Bolstad of Taumarunui, New Zealand, take home the first gold medal of the games in timber springboard and later follow with a silver medal performance in the hot saw competition. His wife, Michele, advanced to today's women's timber endurance finals, where she is guaranteed at least a silver medal.

In three events for the family, the worst either of them can do is second place.

What is most surprising about the couple's performance so far is that Michele, who was only invited to the competition five weeks ago, has only been competiting for five years.

"I first started chopping in '98 when David came over (to the United States). I'd never chopped before," said Michele, who is a police detective in New Zealand.

The couple have known each other for 16 years, and have been together for 12. David has been chopping wood professionally all of that time. After watching her husband compete for so long, Michele wanted to get in on the action. Now, she is taking top honors just like her husband.

"Michele has been in the sport five years, like she said, and there are very few women's events," David said in his native New Zealand accent. "She only competes here in the U.S. There are very few carnivals in New Zealand that she competes at. So it's a growing thing, and fortunately she's improved so much she is one of the contenders now."

Michele said that her improvement was mostly due to her husband's guidance. David coaches her and yells encouragement while she competes.

"I've probably been her biggest critic and the hardest person on her," David said. "I've told her off and been on her case when we're training and all of that. But I have my ways, and it's what has got me to the success that I have. It's the only thing I can hand on to her."

Michele isn't the only logger David has coached, although she admits with a laugh that she has "probably been his hardest pupil."

Whatever coaching they've been doing together, it has been working. Especially Thursday.

In timber springboard, an event where competitors chop notches in a trunk and place foot boards in them to climb up to chop off a block eight feet high, David posted three out of the top four times, including his gold winning time in the finals. The quarterfinals and semifinals where held earlier in the day.

"It was good wood and it was well run," he said. "It was nice to get a win out of it."

The hot saw competition, where participants race against each other to cut of three pieces of a large log with a chain saw, had the most problems of the day. The heat caused many saws to stall, including David's in the semifinals. However, David still advanced to the finals because his opponent, Jason Wynyard of Auckland, New Zealand, had the handle to his saw break off. Both were allowed 15 minutes to fix their saws and when Wynyard wasn't able to, David sawed alone to move onto the finals where he faced defending champion Mike Sullivan of Winstead, Conn. Sullivan was about the only logger not to have problems with his saw and took gold when the chain came off David's saw after the first cut in the finals.

Michele pulled off a major upset in her event, women's timber endurance, which consisted of three different types of chopping, beating 2002 gold medalist Sheree Taylor and later advancing to today's final round against Pam Engasser of Cortland, N.Y.

David will also be competiting today in the men's timber endurance competition, where he will try to advance to a position to win another medal tomorrow.

He said that he likes the events he has already medaled in better.

"I don't really like the endurance that much. But tomorrow's another day and I'll give it a crack shot."

Considering his and his wife's performance Thursday, it should be a pretty good shot.

Notes: David and Michele have a daughter Brooke, who will be 15 months old today...The only other couple competiting is Jason and Karmyn Wynyard. Ironically, Jason lost to David in the hot saw event, and Michele beat Karmyn in the women's timber endurance event. However, Jason won bronze in both the hot saw and spring board competitions, and Karmyn has a chance to do the same today in the third-place match for her event...Admission is free to the events, which will go until Sunday.