Boomerang throwing - a real sport? Yes, a boomerang is a sporting tool, very old but high competitive. Boomerangs fly out more than 200 meters, boomerangs stay in the air for more than a minute, boomerangs are caught with the feet and boomerangs can reach a speed of more than 100 km/h. Designing and handmaking individual boomerangs is part of the sport.
Sounds exotic? It is: there are only a few hundred boomerang enthusiasts in Germany many of which come together for boomerang competitions on a regular basis and sometimes drive all across Europe.
The Boomerang World Championships are held every two years, next time in 2002 they will be in Germany.
The boomerang team "German Young Guns" exists since 1995. Guenter, Oli, Gerrit, Frido and Oli von Kempen (who has retired from boomerang throwing) came together in Giessen/Germany to build up a strategy to bring the Boomerang World Cup to Germany after years of American domination. With unbelievable team spirit and consistent performances this sensational victory came true in New Zealand in 1996 for the first time.
With Torsten Fredrich and Harald Steck (being the only lefthanded thrower in the team) two incredibly strong boomerang throwers joined the "Young Guns" in 1998. The next big win didn´t take too long! In July 1998 at the World Championships in St.Louis/USA, the "Young Guns" won their second World Title in a row!
Australia 2000: The same six throwers started their mission in Melbourne/Australia, home of the boomerang, dreaming of winning the World Cup the third time in a row. It came true! This triple combination of "millenium / third-in-a-row / Australia" has made this World Title the greatest moment in team history and the "Young Guns" legendary...
Each member of the "Young Guns" has learned a lot from the team during the last years. But still everyone has own skills. The team itself with it´s special style of team work has introduced a new way of boomerang throwing to the world wide boomerang community and demonstrated how to compete in an individual sport as a team succesfully. No longer the pure competition rules: team spirit and fun in throwing boomerangs are equally important.
Oh well, the name... In 1995 when the German boomerang teams have been set up for the World Cup 1996, the "Young Guns" were the first team formed only by aspects of friendship and team spirit. And at that time all of us were much younger. In the meantime the name "Young Guns" is known by everybody in the world wide boomerang communtiy.
Mission Melbourne 2000 completed succesfully...
German Boomerang Association on the WWW. One of the largest boomerang related content sites. If you are capable of talking German hit the webboard for boomerang news and the latest boom talk.
http://stud.fh-wedel.de/~mi3359/wc2000/
All the results und realtime news from the 2000 world championships in Melbourne/Australia.
http://www.boombasticrangs.de/
Loads of pictures from European competitions.
http://www.rediboom.com/
Onlineshop for boomerang materials and competition booms made by Günter.
fredrich |
frost |
lemkau |
möller |
steck |
thienhaus