CablePrice’s Lukas Blazey has won the Oceania round of the 2023 Hitachi Top Technician Competition.
The event took place in Brisbane on August 9 and saw Blazey compete with three other Australians.
The competition has been running since 2009 and Blazey will be the 10th technician to represent the Asia Pacific/Oceania region at the world final.
It sees Hitachi trained technicians from around the globe competing to be named the best Hitachi Technician in the world.
The competition tests various skill levels including finding and diagnosing faults on an excavator within a set time frame, written theory tests and reporting in front of a judging panel about various findings regarding the machine in question.
Earlier this year, after having already competed against 10 New Zealand competitors, Blazey took out the title of Hitachi Top Technician for the South Island. All the while, Australia had their own rounds with 15 competitors ending up with three finalists.
Darren O’Connor, CablePrice technical trainer for mining and construction, says Blazey’s preparation for the event proved to be the difference between himself and other competitors.
“He was able to diagnose and repair all practical faults in the machine with 10 minutes to spare. Something that has not been achieved in an Oceania Competition before, a fantastic effort.”
Blazey was announced the winner at an awards dinner on the Wednesday night. He will now go on to represent the Oceania region at the Hitachi Top Tech world finals on October 18-19 at the Technical Training Centre in Kasumigaura, Japan.
