(Feature photo courtesy Broad Axe Throwing Facebook page)
Broad Axe Throwing Augusta owner Vincent Ingallinera competed in the finals of the 2023 Axe Throwing USA Pro-Am Championship in Appleton, Wis. that will air on ESPN2 on at 9 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17.
Ingallinera says one of his goals at the tournament was to make the broadcast and have the Broad Axe Throwing logo on ESPN2, but it was not an easy task.
“It was super tough because about three quarters away through the bracket, I lost to a really good thrower and got bumped to the B bracket, which added multiple additional matches in the bracket in order to make my way to the A bracket champion and then had to beat him twice,” the Grovetown resident said.
The preliminaries leading up to the ESPN2 broadcast consisted of around 250 throwers broken up into four brackets. According to Ingallinera, he had to beat out a bracket of around 70 people to make the ESPN broadcast.
Ingallinera said when he made the ESPN round, it was a different feel. All of the professional lighting and LED screens over the targets added pressure.
“It put a different feeling and butterflies in your stomach,” he said. “It was an exciting experience because you’re throwing in the coolest venue you could imagine and knowing you met that practical goal you set for yourself to make it to the tv round and you have the opportunity to compete against the best throwers in the world.”
After winning his semi-final match, Ingallinera competed against Florida thrower Erik Rimblas in the WATL USA Pro-Am finals.
“We threw basically a made-for-TV match,” Ingallinera said. “It came down to the very last throw, and he took the win by one point, but it was crazy exciting. Even though I did end up losing, losing to Erik wasn’t that bad of beat because he is a fantastic thrower and a great human.”
Ingallinera opened Broad Axe Throwing in downtown Augusta in 2017 and has hosted tournaments there as well. One of their biggest events is its Masters of Axes Tournament in April. The winner gets the Buffalo Plaid Jacket.
“It is coming more and more of a valuable prize to receive, and we expect next year for the tournament to be even bigger and considering now Broad Axe Throwing has been on ESPN, we kinda got a target on our back, and people are going to want to throw against the Broad Axe throwers,” Ingallinera said.
Ingallinera has many goals he would like to accomplish as a professional axe thrower and also as a business owner.
Ingallinera qualified and will be competing in the World Championships in April in Tulsa, Okla.
“Last year I did make it to the World Championships.My practical goal was to not go 0-2 and I went 3-2, “ he said. “This year, I am going for broke.I am going to – from now until April – train until I can be confident stepping in that arena believing that I can be the world champion.”
As a business owner, Ingallinera says he wants to continue to grow the sport in the local areas and provide a great environment at Broad Axe Throwing.
“We would like to continue to make people aware of the sport and provide a premiere venue and the best environment possible for them,” he said. “We also have set our sights on creating different games for people that are new and exciting and keep people interested.”
Broad Axe Throwing is located at 1025 Broad Street in Augusta. Broad Axe Throwing is open Wednesday through Saturday.
Christopher Rickerson, an Augusta University graduate, has covered area sports for Augusta University, The Augusta Press and Augusta Good News. Subscribe to the Augusta Good News newsletter here.
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