The Olympics may be over, but there are still plenty of opportunities to see athletes from around the world do amazing things. This weekend some of Finland’s strongest arms hurled phones into the air in the country’s annual Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships.
While the event attracts its share of amateur phone-tossers, there are serious competitors as well. Finland’s Jonna Mattero is a hammer-throwing expert who won the women’s distance competition by hurling her handset 139 feet. The winner of the men’s distance competition was Ere Karjalainen, who set a new record for the contest by throwing his phone 332 feet. Karjalainen says a day of drinking before the contest helped him win.
The Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships have been held in Finland for 12 years now. Finland, of course, is also home to Nokia, until recently the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones. The contest’s organizers say that people in Finland like to throw old handsets because “Finland is known as the home country of the mobile phones and Finns have always been very fashion-conscious about the phones.”
Then there’s the phone-rage issue, another reason for tossing the devices. According to the Mobile Phone Throwing website, “Mobile phone is an essential part of us that connects us to nearly anywhere in the world, but when you most need it the battery runs out or your sweetheart doesn’t answer or someone doesn’t return your call. Hope, anticipation, passion and frustration concentrates on [the] mobile phone.”
Despite the negative emotions that some people attach to their phones, lobbing your Lumia or ditching your Droid is not allowed in this contest. Instead, competitors must use the phones provided by the contest organizers. The weight of these handsets ranges from 220 grams to more than 400 grams, and contestants may choose their device. After the contest, organizers retrieve and recycle the phones.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4H6gK81d5k
