The competition of skill incorporates a series of precise tool based tasks in a race against the clock.

Staged in Tennessee, USA, Matt Francis made the semi-finals in the world’s biggest tradesman competition.

Francis, an Industrial Arts teacher at Townsville’s St Ignatius Park College, made it through to the semi-finals

of the IRWIN Tools Ultimate Tradesman Challenge, but was narrowly beaten by the competition’s number one seed,

Daniel Shepherd from Halifax, England.

In the best-of-three semi, Francis recorded two of the four fastest times seen anywhere in the world, but it was

not enough to progress to the final.

Competitions were held all over the world with more than 2000 people across Australia and New Zealand alone trying

to qualify for a finals berth.

Francis, representing Australia and New Zealand, was up against the best tradies from North America, South

America, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Europe.

“It's fantastic to have finished fourth,” said Townsville’s Matt Francis. “I actually got two of the four best

times (26.42s and 26.93s), both across the world and across all of the competitors, so I got the times right, just

not the timing.
“Making the top four was the objective so I am very happy. I got beaten by the number one seed in the semi. I got

the second best time ever (26.42s) and was beaten by the best time ever (24.81s).

“It was a great race. I'm proud of what I’ve done, proud to be top four, it's a big achievement.”