Stuart Jones is going to Australia next month to defend his title at the Boomerang World Cup in Melbourne during February 5-12. 

Jones, who works as a personal care attendant in the Lowertown neighborhood of St. Paul, won the world competition for accuracy when the World Cup was held two years ago in Edwardsville, Ill., in suburban St. Louis.

 “In the accuracy competition, you stand in a circle with a radius of two meters and throw the boomerang at least 20 meters,” said Jones. “If it comes back and falls within the circle you get a full ten points,” he said. “I won with 44 points out of 50 in five throws.” Jones became interested in boomerangs when he came to Minnesota from Texas in the 70s and purchased an old car. “I felt under the front seat and found a boomerang. There we’re instructions on it. It worked the first time I tried it. “Jones said the world title he won for accuracy two years ago was very pleasant. “I was 47 at the time,” he said. “This is a sport that it dominated by the young. The winner of the overall competition in Edwardsville was a 25 year old German.” With two exceptions Jones has participated in every national boomerang championship since the early 80s. He never finished in first place but often was among the top three out of a field of more than 150 competitors.  Earlier this year Jones entered the Gateway Classic in St. Louis and won the Australian Round, which includes distance, accuracy, and catch.

 At the national championships in Virginia Beach VA., last summer, he failed to place. Until  November Jones did not know if he would be going to Australia. “Last spring I injured my shoulder when I fell and re-injured it again at the nationals in Virginia Beach.” “Until recently hurt when whenever I threw the boomerang,” he said. ” Now it feels fine.” Jones said the trip to Australia is important to him because he did not go in 1981 when he won a place on the American team for the Challenge Round held in Australia that year. “I couldn’t afford to go that time, but this aid year I can.”

The Boomerang World Cup will be held in Australia several months before the summer Olympics in Sydney. “The boomerang will not be a sport at the Olympics he said but it will be recognized. “A boomerang is featured in ”the official logo of the Sydney 2000 games and also appears on a postage stamp commemorating the Games.”