World Highland Games Championships

The World Highland Games Championships is a well recognised event in both strength athletics and Highland Games. The championships were organized by David Webster, OBE of Scotland, who still conducts the World Championships. 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.

World Highland Games Championships
2018
Tournament information
LocationVaries (last held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Established1980
FormatMulti-event competition
Current champion
Chuck Kasson

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, discus 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]

Year Champion Location
1980 Grant Anderson Los Angeles, California, United States
1981 Geoff Capes Lagos, Nigeria[2]
1981 Bill Anderson Melbourne, Australia
1982 Grant Anderson Prestonpans, Scotland
1983 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland[2]
1984 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland
1985 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland
1986 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland
1987 Geoff Capes Clarkston, Scotland
1988 Jim McGoldrick Aviemore, Scotland
1989 Jim McGoldrick Aviemore, Scotland
1990 Jim McGoldrick Glasgow, Scotland
1991 Jim McGoldrick Callander, Scotland
1992 Jo Quigley Callander, Scotland
1993 Jim McGoldrick Callander, Scotland
1994 George Patience Callander, Scotland
1995 Alistair Gunn Kilmarnock, Scotland
1996 Ryan Vierra Waipu, New Zealand
1997 Ryan Vierra Fredericksburg, Virginia
1998 Ryan Vierra Oulu, Finland
1999 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California
2000 Matt Sandford Waipu, New Zealand
2001 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California
2002 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California
2003 Matt Sandford Antigonish, Nova Scotia
2004 Bruce Aitken Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States
2005 Ryan Vierra Fergus, Canada
2006 Ryan Vierra Pleasanton, California
2007 Gregor Edmunds Inverness, Scotland
2008 Sean Betz Bridgeport, West Virginia
2009 Aaron Neighbour[4] Edinburgh, Scotland "Gathering of the Clans"
2010 Larry Brock Victoria, Canada "30th Anniversary"
2011 Dan McKim Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States
2012 Matt Vincent Fergus, Canada
2013 Dan McKim Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States
2014 Matt Vincent Dunfermline, Scotland[5]
2015 Dan McKim Bressuire, France[6]
2016 Scott Rider Halkirk, Scotland[7]
2017 Dan McKim Hank, Netherlands
2018 Chuck Kasson Victoria, Canada

Championships by country
Country Gold
 United States19
 Australia7
 England7
 Scotland7

Repeat champions
Champion Times
Geoff Capes6[2]
Jim McGoldrick5
Ryan Vierra5
Matt Sandford5
Dan McKim4
Grant Anderson2
Matt Vincent2

References
  1. Roll of Honour
  2. 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 0-926888-06-4). Further still, on his official website, Capes states that he was six times world champion.
  3. "Table of final results (1978 - present)". Archived from the original on 2010-01-03.
  4. The Gathering 2009 Official website
  5. The 2014 World Highland Games Heavy Events Championships
  6. http://highlandgames.canalblog.com/archives/2015/06/14/32217260.html
  7. http://www.ironmind.com/news/Dan-McKim-Wins-IHGF-World-Highland-Games-Championships/
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