SPORTS

HARRI JASOTZEA (STONE LIFTING)

The lifting of stones is one of the most widely known Basque rural sport outside the Basque Country, largely thanks to the porwess of Iñaki Perurena, a harrijasotzaile (stone-lifter) form Leitza, in Navarre, the first on record lo lift stone over 300 kg.

There are usually two stone-lifters competing in each event, taking turns in one or several attempts, to perform the greatest possible number of lifts. A lift is considered complete when the stone has been properly balanced on the shoulder.

The four types of stone most frecuently used are rectangular, cylindrical, spherical and square and were established at the beginning of the 20th century. The stones are traditionally made of granite, their weight normally ranging form 200 kg to 212 kg.

Together with aizkolaritza (wood chopping), stone lifting is another example a widely performed rural sport at local festivities all over the Basque Country.

AIZKORA PROBA (WOOD CHOPPING)

Literally "axe test", this rural sport more commonly known as aizkolaritza, from the Basque word for a wood-cutter. This is a very popular sport today but its origins are to be found in the rural wood cutting and charcoal burning communities of earlier periods.

In this competition, the wood cutter has to chop through a number of tree trunks arranged on the ground in rows as quickly as possible while standing on the log to beat his competitors.

This sport is often seen in summer at local festivities and open-air dances, held in towns all over the country.

ESKU PILOTA (BASQUE PELOTA)
The Basque sport best known outside the Basque Country is Basque pelota. It is a Basque version of the family of ball games that covers squash, tennis, and real tennis, all of them thought to derive from the Jeu de paume and hence a relative of Valencian pilota.

But the main innovation of Basque pilota is that players share a common playground and throw the ball to a wall, making it an indirect game, while the other games in this family are generally direct games where the players face each other in two separate fields separated by a net or line on the ground. The Basques began playing pelota indirectly during the middle of the 19th century. For the different variations of Basque pelota, see the main article onBasque pelota.

While most of the best world players are Basque (in either the Spanish or the French federations), it is by no means limited to the Basque Country and is also played in Castile, Rioja and places where Basques have emigrated to such as Mexico (home of frontenis), Florida and the Philippines.

As such it has been an Olympic exhibition sport in Paris, Mexico and Barcelona.