World Highland Games Championships
| 2011 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Varies (last held in Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, United States) |
| Established | 1980 |
| Format | Multi-event competition |
| Current champion | |
 Dan McKim | |
The World Highland Games Championships is a well recognised event in both strength athletics and Highland Games. The championships are also known as the IHGF Official World Heavy Events Championships, being organised by the International Highland Games Federation. A roll of past competitors includes many of the World's greatest strength athletes with Olympic finalists, World Record Holders, Commonwealth Games medal winners, Guinness Book of Record entrants, physique champions, continental & national title holders, World's Strongest Men and International legends in various sports.[1] The World Highland Games Championships consist of traditional events and are in this sense differentiated from many of the other international strength athletic competitions, including the Highlander World Championships.
History
The World Highland Games Championships were first held in 1980 and were created as an attempt to identify who was truly the greatest Highland Games competitor. Many of the Highland Games competitions around the world have traditionally not been invitational, in the sense that novices can step up to compete, or at the more established events the competitors were very much more selected from the nation in which the competition was held. The world's introduced a formalisation of the requirements for entry and a truly international flavour.
Over the years competitors have been drawn from the disciplines of field athletics, including the shot put, discuss and hammer throw, as well as strength athletes and dedicated Highland Games specialists. In the first three decades of the competition there have been thirteen champions, with four men each having won the title five times, Geoff Capes, Jim McGoldrick, Ryan Vierra and Matt Sandford, and one of those, Geoff Capes, having also won the 1981 World Highland Games Championships held in Lagos, which would make him six times world champion, although this is not listed on the official website.[2]
List of champions
List information taken from this source.[3]
- Source of above information: Official World Championship site of the IHGF.
Championships by country
| Country | Gold |
 United States |
14 |
 Scotland |
8 |
 Australia |
6 |
 England |
6 |
Repeat champions
| Champion | Times |
|---|---|
| Geoff Capes |
6[2] |
| Jim McGoldrick |
5 |
| Josh Delzell |
5 |
| Ryan Vierra |
5 |
| Matt Sandford |
5 |
| Grant Anderson |
2 |
| Dan McKim |
2 |
Commonly contested events
The top 10 to 12 Athletes in the world based on all the traditional events are invited.[5] There are a number of events that make up each competition. The IHGF Official World Heavy Events Championships has the following events:
- 16lb. Open (stone for distance)
- 22lb. Braemar stone for distance
- 28lb. Weight For Distance ("WFD")
- 56lb. WFD
- 16lb. Hammer
- 22lb. Hammer
- 56lb. Weight Over Bar ("WOB") (Standing only)
- Caber Toss
Sub-Competitions
Along with the World Heavy Events Championships two other titles are contested:
- IHGF Official World Hammer Championships:
- This consists of the top 6 to 10 Hammer throwers in the world based on their combined 16 & 22lb Hammer totals. The athletes involved compete within the main World Heavy Events Championships but their Hammer events are then used to ascertain the winner of the Hammer Championships.
- IHGF Official World Team Championships
- This consists of Teams of two from various parts of the world for a combined total Team effort to claim the overall title. In 2008 the teams represented were:
- Team 1: USA
- Team 2: USA 2
- Team 3: Canada
- Team 4: Scotland
- Team 5: International
References
- ^ Roll of Honour
- ^ a b c d Although the IHGF state on their official website that Geoff Capes won the World Heavy Championship in 1983 in Lagos in their IHGF Champions page (here) the 1983 championship finals were held in Carmunnock, as stated in the Development section of IHGF's same website (here). The location of the 1983 championships being Carmunnock is corroborated by Emily Ann Donaldson in her book The Scottish Highland Games in America (Emily Ann Donaldson, The Scottish Highland Games in America, p19, Pelican Publishing, 1986, ISBN 1-56554-560-5, ISBN 978-1-56554-560-1). In Donaldson's book it is mentioned that a World Championship was held in Lagos in 1981 and Capes won this. The book states that the World Heavy Events Championships was also held in 1981 in Melbourne. From this evidence it would seem that there were two World Championships held in 1981, both sponsored by the IHF. Further corroborating the existence of the 1981 Lagos World Championships is the profile of Geoff Capes written by the founder of the IHF, David Webster, who states that Capes won his first world title in 1981 in Lagos. (David Webster, Sons of Samson Volume 2 Profiles, page 78 (Ironmind Enterprises), ISBN 0-92688-06-4). Further still, on his official website, Capes states that he was six times world champion.
- ^ "Table of final results (1978 - present)". Archived from the original on 2010-02-03.[dead link]
- ^ The Gathering 2009 Official website
- ^ Official IHGF site