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''Fierljeppen'' ( West-Frisian compound of ''fier''—"far" and ''ljeppen''—"leaping") or ''polsstokverspringen'' is a traditional sport of the West Frisian people in the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...
province of Fryslân. The sport is nowadays also popular in the province of
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...
which produced record holder Jaco de Groot.


Description

The sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is between long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom. A jump consists of a sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top of the pole while trying to control its forward and lateral movements over a body of water, and finishing by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point.


History

Due to considerable parts of the Netherlands being below sea-level, it has many waterways. Fierljeppen originated as a way for Frisian people to get around the waterways easily. Over time it turned into a competition with the first official match in 1771 but the sport was not properly structured until 1957. The sport is believed to have originated with farmers who used poles to leap over small water drainage channels to access different plots of land. In the German region of
East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisi ...
this sport is known as ''Pultstockspringen''. Today the sport is primarily practiced for fun or to entertain tourists, but there still is an official annual ''National Fierljepping Manifestation'' (NFM) in the Netherlands, and championships are contested in six leagues and numerous clubs.


Record holders

The current Dutch record holders by category are:Dutch official records in fierljeppen
from pbholland.com
*Seniors: , Jaco de Groot from
Woerden Woerden () is a city and a municipality in central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, and the fact that it has rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commu ...
,
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...
(12 August 2017, Zegveld) *Veterans: , Theo van Kooten from Haastrecht, South Holland (31 July 2013, Linschoten) *Ladies: Marrit van der Wal from It Heidenskip, Friesland (31 July 2019, Burgum) *Juniors (under 20): , Reinier Overbeek from Benschop,
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...
(19 August 2019, Burgum) *Boys (under 16): , Wisse Broekstra from
Winsum Winsum () is a town and a former municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. On 1 January 2019 the municipality merged with the municipalities of Bedum, De Marne and Eemsmond to form the new municipality Het Hogeland. The town of Winsum was ...
, Friesland (19 September 2020, Burgum) *Girls (under 16): , Hanneke Westert from
IJlst IJlst (; ) is a city in Friesland, Netherlands. It is located about 3 km southwest of Sneek. It lies within the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân and had a population of approximately 3,140 in January 2017. History It received city rights i ...
, Friesland (24 August 2022, Burgum) There are 532 registered active jumpers in the world; of those, 190 are from the Netherlands.


Fierljeppen throughout the world

International tourists who have visited Friesland and who have observed this sport have helped to spread its popularity across the globe. Competitions in other locales now take place, albeit at a less competitive level due to smaller numbers of athletes and the lack of suitable locations. Many Americans were first introduced to the sport, referred to as "ditch-vaulting", on the twelfth season of ''
The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...
''. This same task would be performed in the twenty-first and thirty-first seasons as a "Switchback" task.


See also

*
Pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ...
* Shepherd's leap


References


External links

{{commonscat
PBholland.com
Sports originating in the Netherlands Sport in Friesland Dutch inventions Traditional sports Dutch folk culture Frisian culture