(Reuters) - Laurence O'Toole was following in his father's footsteps when he became a timbersports world champion on Saturday but the Australian said he owed much of his success to his training in the United States.
O'Toole claimed the individual title at the Timbersports World Championships in Liverpool on Saturday at the Echo Arena after the top 12 in the world had showcased their skills across six disciplines, each focussing on different elements of woodchopping using axes, saws and chainsaws.
O'Toole needed to improve on a time of 6.02 seconds in the last event - the hot saw - to move ahead of Matthew Cogar and win the title, and finished in a personal best of 5.79 seconds.
He topped the standings with 69 points, ahead of American Cogar on 61 and Czech Martin Komarek with 57.
"I did most of my training in America," said O'Toole.
"I've got great friends over there and my timbersports career is really attributed to the great mates I've got in America who've helped me out, let me stay with them, trained me up, teach me, you know in the disciplines I'm not great at.
"Funnily enough today it was those disciplines that won me the world championship, so I'm really grateful for those guys and a special thanks to my family, a couple of buddies that came out and my team."
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
