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Russ Murphy was skeptical when a friend invited him to throw sharp metal objects for fun with a group of regulars at Axes and Os in Sterling on a random weeknight three years ago, but Murphy, with no other plans, showed up. He wouldn’t regret it.

Like most newcomers to the increasingly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/its-not-as-crazy-as-it-seems-ax-throwing-venues-in-dc-to-start-serving-alcohol/2018/10/09/25caf546-c8c1-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html" target="_blank">mainstream sport of ax throwing</a>, Murphy struggled at first to get his ax to stick in the wooden target 12 feet away. One lane over, another member of the group, Suzie Bassett, caught his eye.

“She was all business, just hammering away,” Murphy recalled in a recent telephone interview. “I signed up for a league that night.”

Within a few months, Bassett, who had already established herself as one of the best female ax throwers in the world while working as an associate at a large law firm in D.C., and Murphy, a high school chemistry teacher in Loudoun County, were dating. The couple, who got to know each other over hours of throwing practice, were married in October in a Halloween-themed wedding attended by many of their ax-wielding friends.

This weekend, Bassett, 37, and Murphy, 47, will compete as a team in the duals event at the World Axe and Knife Throwing Championships in Tulsa, where 10 other throwers from the greater Washington area will represent the region in a field of roughly 400 competing for $60,000 in prize money.

Bassett, who goes by Suzie Murphy in the ax-throwing community, is among the most accomplished of the local throwers headed to Tulsa, most of whom compete — and enjoy a few beers — in a World Axe Throwing League-sanctioned league Wednesday nights at the <a href="https://www.thefarmbreweryatbroadrun.com/axe-throwing" target=_blank>Big Axe Barn</a> located within the Farm Brewery at Broad Run.

“It’s a great stress relief,” said Bassett, who is the only member of the tightknit group to qualify for worlds in all three disciplines — hatchet, big axe and duals — which have slightly <a href="https://worldaxethrowingleague.com/axe-throwing-rules/" target="_blank">different rules</a> and require different implements. “It’s two hours where I can just set my phone aside and focus on something other than work.”

It was 2019, while attending a social gathering at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/going-out-guide/wp/2017/11/22/forget-crossfit-competitive-ax-throwing-has-officially-come-to-d-c/" target="_blank">Bad Axe Throwing in Northeast D.C.</a>, when Bassett discovered she had a knack for a sport that, before the World Axe Throwing League was founded in 2017, was most often associated with lumberjack competitions. Instantly hooked, Bassett, who attributes some of her immediate ax-throwing success to her years of experience as a softball pitcher, competed in leagues and tournaments in D.C. and Baltimore until venues sprang up closer to her Northern Virginia home. She qualified for her first world championships in 2021. Today, WATL boasts more than 20,000 throwers around the world.

When Bassett began throwing competitively, she used a $16 ax purchased from Lowe’s. She now owns more than 50 axes, including some with intricate designs. David Cline, who is headed to Tulsa as one of the top throwers based out of the Big Axe Barn, <a href="https://www.dmvaxes.com/s/instagram" target=_blank>crafts custom ax handles</a> for his league-mates in his spare time and made Bassett a Ruth Bader Ginsburg-themed handle a few years ago that remains among her favorites.

Bassett’s strongest discipline is hatchet; she’s the top-ranked female hatchet thrower in the world and the only woman with pro status, which is awarded to the top 128 players in a given discipline. Last month, she placed second in a tournament in big axe, which, as the name suggests, involves throwing a longer and heavier tool.

Duals is the most different event — and the most fun to watch, according to Bassett, given the chaos that two people throwing axes at the same 1.5-inch target simultaneously invites.

“I aim for the left side of the bull’s eye, Suzie aims for the right side of the bull’s eye, and hopefully that happens,” Murphy said of the couple’s straightforward strategy. “Like in any sport, you have off days, but I think with us, we’re typically off together.”

“We have a very similar throw, and it helps with our timing and everything else,” said Bassett, who carries the team more often than not. “He’s improved a lot.”

That’s not by accident. When Bassett and Murphy were house hunting last summer, one requirement for their new home was that it had ample space to practice. The couple settled on a house in Sterling with a garage featuring 12-foot ceilings. Murphy immediately installed two targets, and Bassett painted the back wall with chalkboard paint, which friends and family members sign when they visit.

“I always joke that if someone breaks into our garage, they’re going to turn around and walk out really fast,” Murphy said.

Suzie Bassett

At worlds, throwers in each discipline will compete in a double-elimination format. Matches are best of three games, with a maximum score of 64 points per game. Men and women compete by the same rules, with the same equipment and in the same brackets.

Ax throwing remains a male-dominated sport, but Bassett said that’s slowly changing. When she started throwing, Bassett considered Kendra Kolomyja, who was the only woman to qualify for worlds in 2019, and Anna Kohl, who became the first woman to earn pro status, as her role models. These days, throwers such as Marie-Sophie Boggasch of Alaska, and Lauren Lentz and Ashlyn Lampela-Christmas, who throw at the same venue in Concord, N.C., are helping take the sport to new levels. Brittany Cline, David’s wife; and Betsy Chilcoat, a former discus and shot put thrower at George Mason who has been instrumental in growing the sport of ax throwing in Northern Virginia, round out the trio of women from the Big Axe Barn who qualified for Tulsa.

“When I first started throwing, I don’t think that women were expected to beat men,” Bassett said. “I would go to the event, and people would think it was an easy match. I’m not surprising anyone anymore. … I hope that my game shows women that you can compete at the top level. You’re seeing a lot more talented women trying to push the top of the sport.”

“Early on, there were a lot of guys who just assumed they could beat the woman they were throwing against,” said Murphy, who attended the 2022 world championships in Appleton, Wis., to support Bassett. “That’s been completely smashed. Now when you step in the lane, it doesn’t matter, because there are so many good competitors.”

The 12 local throwers competing in Tulsa this weekend, including Ben Parker, the mutual friend who introduced Murphy and Bassett, booked two rental houses for the trip. Murphy said the group planned to explore the city, relax and just enjoy the experience. The hatchet competition kicks off Friday, and the big axe and duals events get going Saturday. The finals for all three disciplines will be held Sunday and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOfPiN5W5A" target=_blank>broadcast on ESPN</a> at a later date.

Bassett, who estimated she has won roughly $3,500 in prize money in her ax throwing career, hopes to reach the finals and appear on ESPN for the first time. She and her husband will also be rooting for their friends from the Big Axe Barn to represent the area well.

“In a lot of other sports, you don’t get support from your competitors, because they don’t want you to be better,” Murphy said. “In ax throwing, there’s a lot of ‘Hey, you’re doing this with your elbow,’ or ‘Maybe you should try this.’ Among our group, I think the reason we have 12 people going to worlds is we’re all very supportive of what everyone is doing.”

Stanford University, BA in Psychology

Scott Allen has written about the Capitals, Nationals, Washington Football Team, Wizards and more for The Washington Post's D.C. Sports Bog since 2014.

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Ax-throwing world championships to include Virginia’s Suzie Bassett, Russ Murphy

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