Wow – we are all still buzzing with energy after this years’ LockCon! With a fully packed program spanning three days, there was something to learn and do for everyone. People showed up from all over the world, making new friends, discussing new locks and lock opening techniques and just having a good time in general.
An important part of LockCon is the Toool Dutch Open Championships in lockpicking and impressioning. And, thanks to Jord, this year we also had a lever lock opening competition.
Unfortunately, the impressioning competition was nullified due to irregularities. Therefore, there are no winners.
The lockpicking competition was exiting, with for the first time a Dutch winner. In an exiting final, all three final contestants opened one out of three locks within 15 minutes. The fastest time was for winner Walter Belgers, with Christian Holler getting second and Marc Bromm third place.
The lever lock competition was won by Tomás, who opened all four within the 3 minute time limit per lock(!). Oli Diederichsen became second by opening three locks, Lars Jelonnek was the fastest opening 2 locks making him number three.
And finally, the Toool competition, open only to Toool NL members, was won by Walter Belgers. The second place was for Christian Holler (quite a feat since he only had one day for it) and third place for Jos Weyers.
Our thanks go to all the participants who have made this LockCon a great event. Also many thanks to the sponsors. Abus sponsored all the locks and keys for the impressioning contest. Prizes were sponsored by TOOOL.US, Storm Lock Picks, Sparrows Lock Picks, EVVA, M&C, Knaap Junior, Oli Diederichsen and Douglas Bryant.
This year, other than previous years, we will be selling the remainder of LockCon 2014 clothing. So, don’t wait until next LockCon to see if we have reduced the price, we aim to sell the limited stock this year. Instead of T-shirts, we have made high quality embroidered polo shirts sporting the Toool logo on the front and an image of the Sneeker Waterpoort on the back. These will go for 35 euro including shipping. We also have a few VIP “key figure” polo shirts for 45 euro. To order, send your request to merchandise@toool.nl. The first few people ordering will get a LockCon 2014 badge that doubles as a pin tray, courtesy of Datagram. We’ll be posting better pictures soon.
Nullify the impressioning competition three month later?
Sounds strange for me and is absolutely unfair for the winners.
The grip on cam method was used for almost an hour in the competition and no one said anything about it until Manfred was in the finals.
It seems that the wrong man won the trip to the USA and this voting was the method to heal it.
What a sad day for the locksport community!
Yes it would have been better to have had clear rules during the competition. The reason it took time is that the general meeting was not planned earlier. We decided not to disqualify the people using a grip cam (which would have made Jos the winner) but to nullify the competition altogether, which seemed more fair. I’m a bit offended to hear that you think we have a personal grudge, this is not the case. If you had talked to Manfred before placing this comment, you would have known.
Well, i did and maybe Manfred thinks slightly different about that. I heard that he was asked right after the competition to renounce the USA trip while keeping the rest of the price. He refused to do that what was comprehensible for me. Winner or not? Three month later your decision leads to exact this result. This is at least something to discuss.
I’m sorry to hear you felt offended by me what was not my objektiv.
I think a competition court has to decide those things immediately thats a transparent and fair way.
I still can’ t unterstand why nobody said anything when the guys from munich used the method in every round before the final.
I didn’t talk to Manfred right after the competition, I talked to him yesterday. For me his refusal is perfectly understandable and this is what I told him.
The decision that was now made, leads to a different result. There are no more winners to the game.
If you do not think I have a grudge, than apology accepted 🙂
I agree that it would have been better if this discussion had been done during the competition. It should not be done so long afterwards. This was also why we had such a long debate. One of the opinions during that debate was in fact that we should have acted earlier and should leave the result as it is and learn from it. There were also voices to disqualify people using a grip on the cam. After a lot of discussion, neither option was chosen and the members felt this was the “best” option.