Mikko Lampi heaved a Siemens AG cell phone 104 yards on Aug. 27 to set a world record and win the sixth annual Mobile-Phone Throwing World Championships in Savonlinna, Finland.

"Next year, I'll even aim to practice a bit before the competition," the 23-year-old window maker from Vilppula, Finland, said in a telephone interview.

Mobile-phone throwing, pioneered in the homeland of Nokia, the world's biggest cell phone maker, is among a growing list of oddball sports to catch the imagination of Finns. A record 3,000 spectators watched this year's competition in Savonlinna, 208 miles northeast of Helsinki.

Towns across the country draw visitors to world championships including swamp soccer, endurance sauna sitting, wife-carrying and air guitar.

"People say Finns are quiet," said Bruno Maximus, 35, who helped organize the Tournament of Strange Pastimes on Aug. 25 in Helsinki. "But inside there is this crazy mind."

In the age of the Internet, homegrown contests such as carrying your wife over a 253-meter obstacle course have turned into "world championship" events during Finland's long summer days. Former National Basketball Association player Dennis Rodman traveled to Sonkajaervi, Finland for the July 2 wife-carrying event, which commemorates 19th century wife stealers.

Maximus, an artist, contributed paintings for a book on Finnish sports titled "Strange National Pastimes." The book will be translated into English and German before the paintings go on exhibit in Frankfurt, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; and London.

'CRAZINESS' FOR ALL

More than 90 percent of Finland's population own mobile phones, and the nation is the most successful country at the javelin event in the Olympic Games — making the phone-throwing contest an inevitable creation, said Christine Lund, organizer of the contest. The nation of 5.2 million people has won 23 Olympic medals in javelin. No other country has earned more than seven.

"The ground was fertile for this kind of sport, and this sort of craziness appeals to all," said Lund. "Nokia hasn't yet seen the fun side of this" and doesn't sponsor the event.

Sponsors include Hartwall, the maker of Lapin Kulta beer and a unit of Edinburgh-based Scottish & Newcastle Plc.

"Mobile-phone throwing hasn't met the requirements that we set for events we choose to sponsor," said Johanna Jokinen, a spokeswoman for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia.

Rebellion or just fun?

The first mobile-phone chuck, known as "kaennykaenheitto" in Finnish, was held in Savonlinna in 2000. Norway, Germany and the Netherlands now have their own national events, and the winners get trips to the world championship in Finland.

While the organizers provide mobile phones, some contestants prefer to throw their own in the hope they'll never be found, Lund said. Color, grip and weight are among the main criteria used when picking a phone to hurl, Lund said.

"Not everyone wants to be reachable all the time," she said. "This is a reaction against modern efficiency, though the whole point at the end of the day is merely to have fun."

Mobile-phone throwing has two different disciplines, original and freestyle. Lampi, who said he entered the contest after reading about it in the newspaper, defeated Norway's Bjornbet Sondre, who chucked his handset 102 yards.

Sten Kiezenbrink of the Netherlands won the freestyle event, in which contestants get points for presentation, marking the second time Finns have lost a homegrown championship this summer. Estonia's Margo Uusorg and his partner Egle Soll were victorious in the wife-carrying championship.

Rodman, who was a two-time NBA All-Star and won five championships with the Chicago Bulls, withdrew from the competition, citing leg problems.

"Maybe next year, though I need to practice hard," Rodman said in a press release distributed by the organizers. "The results in the competition were dazzling."