ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games VI Features 5 New Events

Celebration, Fla. – Roaring ATV engines, leaping dogs and intense timber action highlight the five new sports to debut at this year’s ESPN Great Outdoor Games. Four Wheel Frenzy, Terracross, The Launch, Hot Zone and SuperJack will thrill fans as they hit the stage at Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex, July 7-10.

ATV’s will be roaring, soaring and racing to the checkered flag in two heart-pumping, fast-paced competitions – Four Wheel Frenzy and Terracross.

Four Wheel Frenzy tests riders’ ability to maintain control of their 450cc engine ATV as it hugs corners, flies over jumps and screams into the backstretch. In the final round of competition, sixteen riders will face-off, battling straight-aways, turns, jumps, water hazards and other obstacles as they race towards the finish line.

Terracross combines archery and ATV racing over rugged terrain. Riders are penalized for missing targets, losing cargo, hitting obstacles or losing control of the ATV. Eight riders will face-off in the final round with the fastest and most accurate competitor taking home the gold medal.

Flying dogs and flying discs will be the trademarks of this year’s sporting dog events. Defying gravitational limits with every leap and bound, The Launch and Hot Zone will crown two new canine champions.

An offshoot of a Great Outdoor Games favorite, Big Air, The Launch measures height as well as distance as dogs bound down the dock aimed for a canvas dummy mounted above the water on an extender. At the end of each round, the dummy’s height and distance from the dock are increased until every dog but the champion has been eliminated.

In the Hot Zone, speed and accuracy are essential. Starting at their owner’s side, dogs run down and attempt to catch discs in six different zones. Catches must be made in the air, and all six catches must be completed in three minutes or less. What’s more, if so much as a paw strikes the Hot Zone (Zone 6) while making catches one through five, all previous catches are eliminated and competitors must start over.

Decathletes and pentathletes beware – the SuperJack event is the ultimate test of lumberjack skill. It’s an octathlon of giant redwood proportion.

Competitors must possess agility, balance, strength and speed to come out on top. In the final competition round, eight competitors will complete the Springboard Chop, Obstacle Pole, Single Buck Saw, Boom Run, Axe Throw, Underhand Chop, Speed Climb and Speed Birl disciplines. Competitors will be ranked 1st through 8th on each discipline and awarded points accordingly. The competitor with the most points at the end of competition is crowned the SuperJack champion.

The ESPN Great Outdoor Games feature top outdoor athletes from around the world and are the ultimate championship of outdoor sports, featuring one-of-a-kind, head-to-head competition in timber and target events, sporting dogs and ATV skills competitions. While entertaining large crowds on site, the ESPN Great Outdoor Games also draw a worldwide television audience on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC Sports.

Since its inception in 2001, ESPN Outdoors has strived to inform and entertain anglers, hunters, campers and people of all ages who enjoy the outdoors. ESPN Outdoors is committed to increasing awareness of outdoor activities, a direction best exemplified by daily television programming totaling nearly 1,000 hours annually on ESPN and ESPN2.

Each year, ESPN Outdoors stages more than 30 marquee events including the CITGO Bassmaster Classic and the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. ESPN Outdoors comprises BASS, the worldwide authority on bass fishing that sanctions more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation. ESPN Outdoors also features Bassmaster.com, ESPNOutdoors.com, a weekly outdoors show on ESPN Radio as well as a growing array of promotions and activities that deliver a clear message of conservation and ethical sportsmanship.

For more information, contact Kim Jessup, ESPN Communications at (407) 566-2175.

2005 Great Outdoor Games Fact Sheet

Flying dogs, athletes with axes and off-road warriors on ATVs are just a few of the spectacles fans will experience at ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games VI at Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex and the Tenoroc Shooting Sports and Training Facility, July 7-10, 2005.

The Great Outdoor Games is the ultimate championship of outdoor sports and is enjoyed by tens of millions of television viewers each year. It celebrates life in the outdoors and highlights sporting dogs, timber sports, ATVs and shooting.

Gold, silver, bronze and more than $550,000 are at stake when competitors take to the field, water, stage and track. The roar of hot saws, the zing of arrows and the smell of gunpowder fill the air as competitors face-off to find out who is the very best in the world.

SITES: Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex and Tenoroc Shooting Sports and Training Facility in Lakeland, Fla.

SPORTS: Timber (Venue A – Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex)
Men’s and women’s timber events test strength, speed and balance. The men’s events include: Hot Saw, Speed Climbing, Boom Run, Log Rolling, SuperJack and Endurance. Women’s events include: Boom Run, Log Rolling and Endurance. Men and Women participate in the World Team Relay.

Sporting Dogs (Venue B – Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex)
These events require obedience, speed and athleticism. The Sporting Dog events include Big Air, The Launch, Agility, Superweave and Hot Zone.

Archery (Venue C – Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex)
Intense concentration, nerves of steel and remarkable hand-eye coordination are needed to succeed in the archery events. Archers face-off to shoot at both moving and stationary targets. One miss and they could be gone.

ATVs (Venue D – Disney’s Wide World of Sports ® Complex)
Loud, fast and loads of fun – that describes the ATV. They’re new to the 2005 Great Outdoor Games. There will be two events this year: Four Wheel Frenzy, a fast-paced lap race, and Terracross, an all-terrain obstacle course race that includes water obstacles and an archery element.

Rifle and Shotgun (Venue E – Tenoroc Shooting Sports and Training Facility)
Ready, aim, fire! That’ll be the cue for our outdoors athletes at the Tenoroc shooting ranges. Competitors will be tested on their ability to hit a variety of different targets.

SPORT Timber: All Disciplines
ORGANIZERS: Lumberjack Sports International, the world's largest producer of lumberjack sports and entertainment, not only organizes the Great Outdoor Games timber events, but also the Stihl Timbersports Series.

The LSI’s Ironjack Timber Team performs nationally at more than 45 venues per year. With venues ranging from the prestigious Calgary Stampede, Fortune 500 companies, state and local fairs, theme and water parks, festivals, malls and boat, sport and travel shows, Lumberjack Sports International performs in more than 1,200 shows annually. The Lumberjack Shows have also achieved international recognition, performing in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Sporting Dogs: Big Air and The Launch
Shadd and Melanie Field of DockDogs will organize the Big Air and The Launch dog competitions. DockDogs was established in 2001 as a result of the tremendous popularity of Big Air at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. Today DockDogs is the independent governing and sanctioning body for national and international dock jumping performance sports. DockDogs establishes the rules and standards of the sport, tracks results and records as well as supports and promotes the growth of its athletes, events, spectators, and sponsors.

Sporting Dogs: Agility and Superweave
Dr. S. Shane McConnell of Sharon Center, Ohio, is a nationally recognized dog sports events organizer and coordinator with Independent Rescue of Ohio. She is a licensed dog agility judge for three organizations and has 35 years’ experience in dog obedience, training and showing.

Shane volunteers her time to promote responsible dog ownership and expand canine sports opportunities nationally. She is president and training director of Medina Swarm Agility Club (USDAA), Youngstown All Breed Obedience (AKC) and Cleveland All Breed Training Club (AKC).

Sporting Dogs: Hot Zone
Working with the International Disc Dog Handlers’ Association, Shadd and Melanie Field of DockDogs will organize the Hot Zone competition.

The International Disc Dog Handlers' Association (IDDHA) is a member-supported non-profit organization representing and uniting the individual handlers, local and regional clubs and disc dogs that make up the Canine Disc sport. IDDHA is the official sanctioning body for Canine Disc events and competitions worldwide. IDDHA recognizes levels of achievement through testing, titling, ranking and records using its official rules and regulations.

Target: Archery
ArrowSport is a nonprofit association that works to grow awareness and participation in the sport of archery through education, promotional activities and archery range development.

ATV: All Disciplines
MXi is a television and live event production company specializing in motorsports and action sports, headed by principals Paul Taublieb and Tes Sewell. The company is the exclusive Sport Organizer for all freestyle and supermoto moto-x events at the X Games, producer of the Op Pro, formerly official producer of NASCAR videos and Eco Challenge, and is currently writing/producing an IMAX movie about global surf exploration. MXi has produced events and programming for ABC, ESPN, Fuel, Fox Sports Net, NBC, USA Network, CBS, and clients have included Jeep, Nokia, Anheiser-Busch, Activision, and Disneyland, among others.

Target: Rifle and Shotgun
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the industry's largest trade association and a leader in nationwide efforts to build a better understanding of and a more active participation in the shooting sports.

Through a variety of award-winning educational programs in schools, and marketing efforts on television and in outdoor and general interest media, the NSSF helps create new and more active participants for the hunting and shooting sports.

OUTDOOR Each year, the Great Outdoor Games features an interactive village
FESTIVAL: with activities, music and live entertainment to entertain spectators and give them a taste of what the Great Outdoor Games competitions are all about. Activities include Dodge and Kawasaki displays, miniature speed climbing poles for fans to try, a log rolling tank, and an area where people can "pan" for gold, just to name a few. At the hub of the interactive village will be a music and entertainment stage and a Great Outdoor Games Museum.

ADMISSION: Admission to the 2005 Great Outdoor Games is $5 per person per day, with children 10 and under free. Re-entry is allowed each day. Tickets can be purchased on ticketmaster.com through June 26 and purchased at the door the day of the event.

DISNEY’S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS® COMPLEX
Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex is a state-of-the-art sports entertainment facility, providing the Great Outdoor Games the very best facility to compete and a fan experience that is unparalleled. Spread over 220 acres in the heart of the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex plays host to more than 170 events each year for professional and amateur athletes in some 30 sports. It includes nine venues and is home to more than 40 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Championships, Atlanta Braves Spring Training, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Training Camp, the Sports Experience interactive area and the All Star Cafe sports-themed restaurant. For more information on Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex, visit www.disneyworldsports.com.

TENOROC SHOOTING SPORTS AND TRAINING FACILITY
The Tenoroc Shooting and Sports Training Facility covers 170 acres and has several shooting ranges to accommodate rifles, shotguns, handguns and archery shooting. It also features a fully stocked pro shop, spacious parking lot and a covered rifle range. The property is three miles northeast of Lakeland and is surrounded by the sprawling 7,300-acre Tenoroc Fish & Wildlife Management Area, which is owned by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.