Atypical yes but very serious: an organized disorder with its official regulations. It is forbidden to spin the tree; the throw must be straight. And beware of the yellow card if you drop the board which marks the limit of your race. The measurement is taken from the part of the tree farthest from the board. And laser please.
Who says “throw” also says regulatory projectiles. “We spent the morning trimming the trees so that they were the right weight: 10 kg for the men and 5 for the women. For children, we have several weights around 2 or 3 kilos,” explains Sam, one of the founders and organizers. Now that we have the framework, let’s move on to practice.
The record is held by Andy, the Walloon Brabant champion who has remained undefeated since with a throw of 10.77 meters in 2019.It’s still quite exceptional. I still have trouble understanding how it happened even holding the tree like he did. He had very good athletic fundamentals,” reassures Sam.
Trunk push or javelin
To dethrone the king of the tree, everyone uses their own technique… or not. For Mathieu, first participation, it will be “improvisation totale.” Finally… before being taken back by her daughter, Suzanne: “no, there is a technique, you have to take the tree by the tip.”
Others prefer the “trunk push.” Impossible to win like that, according to Jean-François. An engineer by training, the Boitsfortois studied the theory a bit before getting started. “When pushing through the trunk, there is too much wind resistance.” Rather good theory since it is precisely with the trunk forward that the record was established: the javelin method.
It will ultimately be 5.71 meters for the father with the encouragement of his children. A long way from Andy, but that’s not the point.
A real Belgian championship
“Here we get together as neighbors, we bring the neighborhood and the businesses to life.” Enot that. We will have encountered people from Saint-Gillois or even people from Schaerbeek. The reputation of this competition goes beyond the municipality and sometimes even the region: “we have already had people from Liége, Namur, people from Flemish Brabant.” In short, a real Belgian championship.
And at its origin, we find Liven who ran the local grocery store. In fact, he was the one who sold almost all the trees in the neighborhood. But after the holidays, the trees were abandoned in the street. They were burned for a while. The firefighters kindly asked to stop this practice. Liven then had the idea to collect all the trees and create the championship. Before Brussels Propreté came to handle green waste, the small team always toured the streets with Liven’s van to collect conifers. Ten years later, the competition has almost become a tradition.
But for the first time this Saturday, the person who had the idea for the competition was not present. “He went to live in France.” It was therefore necessary to convince the buyer of the grocery store now called Rouge Cerise and run by Arkin. “At first, when we talked to him about it, I think he said to himself: “What are these crazy people? What are they talking about? Sam remembers. Finally, he responded when he saw all the activity it brought to the neighborhood.” The party is saved.
For this 2025 edition, the results of the competition are expected around 10:30 p.m.
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