Hillary scholar shows his choppy prowess

Wood chips were flying at Waikato University’s stand when student Luke van Veen showed his chopping prowess at the first day of Fieldays.

He hopes to get the crowd involved and give them a ‘taste’ of the sport as he chops and saws his way through blocks of wood.

“It will be a lot of fun and I’ve been looking forward to it and it will give me a bit of exercise”, says Luke.

He is one of 47 students on the prestigious Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Programme at Waikato University. A first-year Bachelor of Management Studies student, Luke has represented New Zealand three times in timbersports. As vice-captain of the 2010 national U21 team he placed second in the 12-inch Open Standing event.

Timbersports involves a lot of strength training but Luke says that technique is by far the most important aspect.

“Balance and weight-training are really important in this sport”, he says.

“I started chopping at Mt Maunganui College when I was 13. We were lucky enough to have Cliff Hughes, one of the greats of timbersports in New Zealand, offer to coach a team from the school. That’s how it began for me.”

Since then, Luke has travelled to Australia several times to compete. He is planning to return in September this year and enter competitions at the Royal Adelaide Agriculture Show.

“I’ve competed before in Melbourne but Adelaide will be a new tournament with different choppers. It’s a challenge.”

His personal best performance so far was when he won the Dick Honey Memorial Tournament two years ago in Waiuku.

“I beat David Bolstad by less than a second which is one chop. He’s a far more experienced chopper than me so that was a real thrill.”

To see Luke in action make a point of visiting the University of Waikato marquee D25. He will be showing his skills from 11 am – 3 pm each day.