I love to continue this series of rare sports, I am always surprised by the crazy rules and ways in which they are practiced. The last sport of which I wrote, it was called Jai-Alai, was a derivation of the game of the basque ball, in which with a basket you grabbed a ball and threw it against the side of the opposing team to score points.
Today as usual, sport has a rather peculiar name "Fierljeppen"; created by the Dutch Frisians.
It consists of a giant rod perhaps more than 12 meters long, placed in the middle of a channel of a river, clear with a flat base so that the end of the rod does not remain embedded in the bottom of the river.
The competitors have to run through a platform to get speed and then jump to the stick, climb as fast as possible to the top of the rod while it is falling, ending in a landing on the other side of the river.
It sounds pretty basic, but once you spend some time watching the videos of the competitors, at least I noticed that the landing can be a bit painful! also that you have to have grip strength to not fall off the rod.
The winner is decided by the highest number of meters achieved.
Because the Netherlands is below sea level, they have many waterways. The Fierljeppen originated as a way to move easily between them, this sport is more than 200 years old !!!
I hope some day to have the great pleasure of going to the Netherlands to practice it, although at present there are some places in the USA that are doing it too.
Here are some videos of this amazing sport
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