Placid wins third ESPN Outdoor Games

By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Writer

The ESPN Great Outdoor Games are back, and, after what will be three years, they now seem like our own. After all, they were spawned in Lake Placid and its surrounding areas in the summer of 2000. Unlike past ESPN creations, the Great Outdoor Games’ return for a third year is unusual, for the network prefers to stay only two years at a site, then move on.

One reason the Games of 2002 wound up in Lake Placid this July and not in northern Virginia or Montana is 9/11. After seeing the extent of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, ESPN decided to return to New York for yet another year, and these should be the best Great Outdoor Games so far.

According to Alex Rozis, marketing and communications coordinator, "There will be much more interactive displays than last year. Spectators will be able to learn and virtually do all Games’ activities including fishing, pole climbing, log rolling and target sports interactively."

There will be some minor changes. Fly ball, where dogs run back and forth in relay races, has been eliminated because, as Rozis says, "It was great to watch in person, but it didn’t translate well on TV."

A Games addition is the co-ed log boom relay run in the Timber Sports category. In this sport, contestants run on top of floating logs.

The fishing venue will be pretty much the same, as of now. There had been talk of moving the fly-fishing to another section of the West Branch of the Ausable, but where? Control is needed, and the long sections of the river in Wilmington Notch are through state land, and the private stretches are too short for full-blown competition.

Some fly fishers competing may have become very familiar with the private stretch now used, but Rozis hopes, this familiarity will lead to some bigger trout being caught.

The bass competition on the Saranac Lakes Chain will be fierce this year, with just about all of the best bass pros entered. Two-time winner Peter Thilveros will be hard pressed to get a threepeat.

The Great Outdoor Games run July 11-14. The first TV airing is scheduled for July 20 on ESPN.