Expert excavator Matthew Hareb to defend national title

Media Release – for immediate release

15 March 2012

Expert excavator Matthew Hareb prepares to defend his national title

Champion excavator operator Matthew Hareb from Taranaki, is gearing up to defend his title at the National Excavator Operator Competition finals this weekend.

Last year Matthew became only the second person in the competition’s history to win the national title at his first attempt.

Now Matthew, owner of M Hareb Excavating, is preparing to take on regional finalists from around the country in this year’s championship at the Central Districts Field Days in Feilding, Manawatu, on March 16 and 17.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Matthew. “I take the attitude ‘if I win I win and, if I don’t I don’t’ and just get out there and enjoy the challenge and pitting my skills against the other regional champions.”

The gruelling contest is organised by the New Zealand Contractors’ Federation.

One of the most famous aspects of the event is the surprise challenge – where contestants have to perform a delicate task such as pouring a cup of tea or popping a champagne cork using the buckets of 12-tonne Hitachi machines provided by major sponsor CablePrice.

However, the rest of the competition is far less light-hearted, with contestants undergoing two days of rigorous construction, planning and loading challenges designed to test their operator skills and industry knowledge to the limit.

The Federation’s Executive Officer Malcolm Abernethy said that, as always, organisers had plenty of surprises up their sleeves and contestants should “expect the unexpected”.

“Excavator operating is a highly skilled profession and every year we look for new ways to test our finalists to the utmost to not only assess their operating skills but to see how they deal with a very wide range of often difficult and unexpected situations,” he said.

The National Excavator Operator Competition is sponsored by CablePrice; Hirepool; InfraTrain; Z Energy; Vector; Humes; Dial B 4 U Dig; Chorus and Contractor Magazine.

ENDS

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