483 ½ Wizolympics – Day 6 Update: Yeti Toss Qualifying Round

This morning the qualifying round for the Yeti Toss kicked off here in Sochi. Nine teams competed in this round with Nepal as the favorite going in. In order to make it past this round a wizard from each team needed to choose a yeti that would toss him/her at least 60 meters.

As expected, Shreya Rana of Nepal skillfully chose her yeti, and she landed at 69 meters to qualify for the finals. She was accompanied by the athletes from Iceland, Norway, the United States, and Russia.

The excitement began when Roland Bekker (South Africa) choose his yeti. The yeti was an impressive choice at sixteen feet tall, but unfortunately, when the time came for the toss the yeti refused to lift Bekker. Instead the yeti became irritated by Bekker and began to chase the wizard around the arena. The event had to be stopped for ten minutes as yeti wranglers were brought in to stop the creature. Once the yeti was taken away, Bekker left his hiding place but unfortunately is not able to move on to the final round.

“I don’t know what happened; all I did was try to jump in its arms for the toss, and instead it charged at me. This has never happened to me with a yeti before,” said Bekker after this morning’s event.

Sadly, our own David Gillings from Great Britain was removed from the competition when his yeti tossed him not into a pile of snow but into the side barriers. He was taken from the arena with a broken arm and sadly will not compete in the finals due to a toss distance of only 40 meters.

Mira Niskala (Finland) and Zevegliin Artag (Mongolia) were also eliminated from the competition for landing short of the 60 meters.

-Reporting from Sochi, Russia

Penelope Flume