Julen Alberdi ‘Txikia IV’ and Nerea Arruti were the winners of the third edition of the Sherpa.ai Aizkolari Txapelketa Nagusia, a new competition created by the aizkolaris themselves with the intention of modernizing and professionalizing this modality of rural sport whose final was played in Miribilla against about 4,000 viewers. Txikia IV finished the challenge of cutting twelve logs of different dimensions in a time of 42 minutes and 39 seconds, while Arruti completed his, in his case four logs, in 12 minutes and 16 seconds.
In a test dominated by the Aizkolaris from Gipuzkoa, the first four among the six participants, the Azkoitia man surpassed Eneko Otaño, second, by 2.36, and Mikel Larrañaga by 3.28, perhaps the great a priori favorite after being second in the first two editions and in the absence of the winner in both, the Navarrese Iker Vicente. Otaño and Larrañaga, who recognized that today “has not been the luckiest day” he has had, exchanged the positions on the podium that they occupied in 2020 and 2021.
The fourth from Gipuzkoa, Ugaitz Mugerza (48.46), and the two Navarrese, Ibai Soroa (1h02.11) and Txomin Amundarain (1h02.35), completed the classification, the latter two finishing almost at the sprint after more than an hour of maximum effort. In the women’s competition, with three participants and dominated from start to finish by Arruti, Irati Astondoa from Biscay was second, 3.39 behind the winner, and third was Uxue Ansorregi, also from Biscay, 5.36 after conceding a goal at the end.
In a morning with various musical performances that accompanied the sporting event, there was also a vertical log cutting exhibition, which Rubén Saralegi finished in 6 minutes and 49 seconds and Julen Kañamares in 6.56, 7 seconds more. After the competition, Txikia IV confessed to “feeling a lot of joy and a lot of emotion” to see rewards for the “many hours of work” for “many years” that have led him to this result and all the good ones he has had in 2022. Arruti, for his On the other hand, she was also happy that in “all” the competitions in which she has participated this year she has “taken the txapela” of champion