In the world of lumberjacks, chips happen.

Whether in a pile of sawdust or flying from an ax-hammered log, chips fly and land in all sorts of places.

At least one of those has made a major mark on the timber competitions in the last year. And it's the same one that could play a big role in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

	Arden Cogar Jr. is swinging for gold in the Men's Endurance.

Especially for Arden Cogar Jr., who is competing in the Men's Endurance event against some of the powerhouses of the lumberjack world. The Endurance event is made of three competitions, one is the underhand chop, where competitors chop through a 20-inch block of wood they are standing on. The next step is the standing block chop, where a similar piece of wood is standing in front of the chopper much like a tree. And the last of the round is the single buck, which requires the competitor to saw through a log with a crosscut saw.

In years past, Jason Wynyard has been the man to beat. Wynyard is the reigning king of the lumberjacks. And until his brother-in-law, Dion Lane, beat him in the semi-finals of the 2002 Great Outdoor Games, Wynyard appeared unbeatable.

The chips, though, may be falling in favor of Cogar, even if it didn't look that way almost a year ago.

The chip's impact began in August 2002. It was laying on the stage during a Stihl TimberSports' event. For Cogar, that small wood chip was like a brick wall in the middle of his move around the log in the final heat of the Standing Block Chop at the Stihl TimberSports Series event in Oshkosh, Wisc.

During the Standing Block Chop event when the pine log is cut halfway through lumberjacks run around the log with axe in hand to finish the cut. In a sport where axmen waylay logs, cutting out huge chunks of wood, it is not often a small wood chip makes a huge difference.

The chip, though, caused Cogar to slip in the middle of the competition throwing him off balance in a way that his right arm violently struck the base of the stand, rupturing his tricep tendon. The resulting injury not only forced him out of the Stihl TimberSports Championship, it placed his right arm and shoulder in a cast for more than 10 weeks.

But when he shed the plaster shell of the cast, it was like a caterpillar casting a cocoon and emerging as a completely new person.

"Since then I've been kicking ass and taking names," Cogar said, obviously a little more brash and to the point than the average butterfly.

Cogar, who is a self-described workout fanatic, because of the cast was unable to push himself in the gym like he normally would. The suspended workouts and competition time actually turned out to be a blessing.

"Initially it was difficult, very depressing," Cogar said. "I'd worked really hard in the off season to get in good shape, trained really hard. I was depressed that all my work had gone for not.

"But I had always had a nagging shoulder injury. Because I worked out and competed all the time, it would never heal."

With the cast over his tendon, the shoulder finally healed.

"That was the silver lining to all of this," Cogar said.

As soon as the cast came off, he started competing.

In his first competition he traveled to New Zealand to compete in that country's Klondike Days event and beat everyone but Jason Wynyard, the reigning king of the lumberjacks. From there he went to Sydney, Australia and became only the second American to ever win the 13-inch Standing Block Chop World Championship. And back home in at the Webster County Wood Chopping Festival in West Virginia, he won another world title in the 13-inch Standing Block chop. Mixed in with that is a string of top finishes in chopping and sawing events.

I'm having a very good overall year," Cogar said. "I haven't been able to push my self in the gym; as a result I have less muscle weight, but I'm a lot more flexible and my timing is better.

"This is the best I've ever cut."

Next in his sights is the Endurance race. To date, he's finished 6th and 5th in the competition, never threatening to take the gold medal from Wynyard or last year's gold medalist, Matt Bush.

Cogar, though, is definitely on track to making the run this year.

"Everything in my life is better," he said.

It needs to be if he expects to come close to winning the gold in the Endurance. There's no room for injuries in an event that should be subtitled "The Iron Man."

With Cogar's new energy he feels like he's in a better position to win than ever. All he has to do is make sure that the chips don't get in the way.

Round One Results — Men's Timber Endurance

1a. Matt Bush, Croghan, N.Y., def. Rob Waibel, West Linn, Ore.
1b. Justin Beckett, Australia, def. Brad Turner, Australia
1c. Dave Bolstad, New Zealand, def. Matt Gurr, Australia
1d. Mel Lentz, Dianna, W.Va., def. Steve Rowe, Australia
1e. Jason Wynyard, New Zealand, def. Mike Forrester, Glide, Ore.
1f. Dave Jewett, Pittsford, N.Y., def. Dale Beams, Australia
1g. Dion Lane, New Zealand, def. Mike Sullivan, Winstead, Conn.
1h. Arden Cogar Jr., Hamlin, W.Va., def. Dale Ryan, Australia