- Title: FINLAND: GERMANS WIN WORLD MOBILE PHONE THROWING CHAMPIONSHIP.
- Date: 27th August 2005
- Summary: (L!WE) SAVONLINNA, FINLAND (AUGUST 27, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. TABLE WITH OLD BROKEN MOBILE PHONES 2. CLOSE UP OLD PHONES USED IN COMPETITION 3. SWISS TEAM MEMBER HOLDING A PHONE 4. AUSTRIAN TEAM PREPARING FOR FREESTYLE COMPETITION 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAKOB LIEBL, AUSTRIAN TEAM MEMBER: "We are preparing for freestyle, for our team and our show which you will see the training, so it is optimised." 6. JAKOB LIEBL WITH TWO FEMALE TEAM MEMBERS THROWING A PHONE 7. JUDGES 8. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE CHEERING 9. VARIOUS OF AUSTRIAN TEAM MEMBER "MIKE", WHO SHOWED THE WORST RESULT LAST YEAR, THROWING A PHONE 10. MAN WITH SIGHTING DEVICE 11. MAN TAKING RESULTS 12. PEOPLE CLAPPING 13. OLD PHONES IN A BOX 14. PARTICIPANTS PICKING THEIR PHONES 15. CLOSE UP SECURITY GUARD 16. FLAG 17. SWEDISH PARTICIPANT THROWING A PHONE 18. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CLAPPING 19. DISTANCE BEING MEASURED 20. CLOSE UP MOBILE PHONE 21. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRISTINA LUND, CHAMPIONSHIP'S ORGANISER, ANSWERING A QUESTION WHAT IS BEHIND THE POPULARITY OF THE EVENT, SAYING: "I think it is a fact that you can liberate yourself from the slavery of being available, from the slavery of always being by the phone. People also kind of get feelings towards the phone and they liberate themselves from those frustrations." 22. RESULTS DISPLAY 23. VARIOUS OF ANOTHER AUSTRIAN TEAM MEMBER THROWING A PHONE 24. VARIOUS OF WINNERS DRESSED AS PRIESTS THROWING PHONES 25. (SOUNDBITE) (German) WINNER, MICHAEL JULING, SAYING: "When the German team won the mobile throwing championship, we were asked how we prepared for the performance. It came about because when a German had become a Pope, our press came out with headlines "We (Germans) are all Popes". We thought OK, two Popes at the Mobile Throwing Championship in Finland. We knew that sauna is a sacred place where it is unacceptable to be carrying a mobile phone. We combined these two concepts - we are Popes and sauna is sacred, so we threw the telephones away." 26. VARIOUS OF AWARD CEREMONY Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SAVONLINNA, FINLAND
- Country: Finland
- Reuters ID: LVA2J00420LZ9AKR3YA2B2W1SWLL
- Story Text: Germans win 'World Mobile Phone Throwing'
championship.
The world's most frustrated mobile phone users met in Finland on
Saturday (August 27, 2005) for their annual phone throwing contest but this time it
was not the length of a hurl that mattered.
Acrobatic stunts and whimsical shows based on people's perplexed
relationship with their mobile devices drew attention away from the new world
record of 94.97 metres staged by Finnish window-maker Mikko Lampi.
The organisers welcomed the shift saying contestants took the
championship too seriously before.
About 160 people, some of them winners of national championships, took
part, compared with only 30 when the bizarre contest started in 2000.
Finland is home to the world's largest mobile handset maker Nokia, and
is the country with the highest mobile penetration rate in the world. However,
many handsets, especially the older models, end up at the bottom of numerous
Finnish lakes, maybe because frustrated owners release their anger by throwing
them into the water.
The organisers of the Mobile Phone Throwing Championship in the town of
Savonlinna, not far from the border with Russia, saw the contest as a chance
for people to free their emotions in a more controlled way as well as to clean
up the Finnish lakes.
"I think it is a fact that you can liberate yourself from the
slavery of being available, from the slavery of always being by the phone.
People also kind of get feelings towards the phone and they liberate
themselves from those frustrations," said Christina Lund, an
organiser.
The weight of the phones approved for competition varies from 220g to
over 400g. Some participants believe heavier phones fly farther than lighter
ones, and others say the opposite.
This year the gold went to Michael Juling and Kay Sallach from Germany
who dressed as Catholic priests and threw their phones after being disturbed
by constant ringing in the sauna.
"We knew that sauna is a sacred place where it is unacceptable to
be carrying a mobile phone. We combined these two concepts - we are Popes and
sauna is sacred, so we threw the telephones away," Juling said.
During the summer Finland is home to a number of odd contests including
wife-carrying competition, air guitar competition, swamp football and many
others. Finland had also hosted the 10th World Athletics Championship in
August.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None