Columnist Barb Henderson: Outdoors Games lure audience wherever they find a home

Barb Henderson

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 10:01 a.m.

Barb Henderson is an outdoors enthusiast, freelance writer and producer/host of outdoors radio television programming. Her column appears Friday in the Sun.

For three years the Great Outdoor Games were held in Lake Placid, N.Y. Last year the games were here in the Silver State, in Reno and Lake Tahoe, and this year the excitement of competition took place July 8-11 in Madison, Wis.

It seems that no matter where ESPN decides to hold the Great Outdoor Games, thousands of people will travel to enjoy the target sports, fishing, timber and sporting dogs.

This year the games featured more than 200 athletes, with a new attendance record of 68,424 fans seeing the action firsthand.

The target sports included archery, rifle and shotgun; the fishing competition has both bass fishing and fly fishing events; the sporting dogs compete in agility, big air and retriever trials; and the timber event categories cover hot saw, endurance, speed climb, springboard, team relay, tree topping, log rolling, and the boom run.

Here are the standings for the target sports, fishing, retriever trials and big air: (For a complete listing of all 23 competitions held at this year's Great Outdoor Games and all of the final standings, go to www.greatoutdoorgames.com)

Archery

Randy Hendrix, North Carolina

Wayne Endicott, Oregon

Randy Ulmer, Arizona Shotgun

Travis Mears, Texas

Robbie Purser, Georgia

Andy Duffy, Montana Rifle

Mike Cumming, Pennsylvania

Jerry Miculek, Louisiana

Carl Bernosky, Pennsylvania Freshwater doubles

Denny Brauer, Mike Gofron -- 30 pounds, 5 ounces

Mike Iaconelli, Bill Ortiz -- 24-14

Gerald Swindle, Dan Plautz -- 23-8 Fly fishing

Lance Egan, Utah -- 13.75 inches

Jim Hickey, Wyoming -- 8 inches

Ryan Barnes, Utah -- 7.75 inches Retriever trials

Achilles (J. Paul Jackson, Tennessee)

Ready (Alex Washburn, Mississippi)

Nike (Jerry Day, Georgia) Big Air

Mike Jackson, Minnesota

Ken Butler, Oklahoma

Milt Wilcox, Minnesota

Some of the items listed on the agenda will be: litigation over nonresident big game tags, a statewide mule deer management plan, a proposal to change the opening date of this year's quail season in Clark, Lincoln and portions of Nye counties from the second Saturday in October to the first Saturday; a request to approve expenditures for upland game bird stamps; and status reports on antelope, bighorn sheep, elk, mountain goat, upland game, waterfowl and furbearers.

A complete agenda can be obtained at any NDOW office.

The three-day world championship will award a $200,000 top prize and an opportunity to earn one of the most important titles in professional fishing.

BASS is the world's largest fishing organization, sanctioning more than 20,000 tournaments worldwide through its Federation. The CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail, which includes the all-new Bassmaster Elite 50 series, is the oldest and most prestigious pro bass fishing tournament circuit and has set the standard for credibility, professionalism and sportsmanship since 1968.