Dan McKim Launches into the Lead at IHGF World Championships
by Elizabeth Hammond
IronMind Enterprises, Inc.

Palmer, Alaska–In the state of "big trees, big mountains, and big fish," so described by Alaska resident and former World’s Strongest Man Bill Kazmaier, USA’s Dan McKim has established a 4-point lead over USA’s Matt Vincent in the 2016 IHGF World Highland Games Championships.



Under variable skies in Palmer, about 40 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska, 12 pro heavies wowed the crowds on day one of the 35th Alaska Scottish Highland Games, host of this year’s IHGF World Highland Games Championships under the direction of  Alaska Scottish Highland Games Athletic Director Tim Kincaid and an enthusiastic team of volunteers.

IHGF president Francis Brebner at the mic, ably assisted by the Kaz, called the action, starting with the open stone, where defending champion McKim got a slow start in fifth place to challenger Vincent’s third. 

Vincent edged out McKim in the 56-lb. weight for distance by a slim 4”, only to be walloped by McKim in the 16-lb. light hammer, where McKim set a field record and outdistanced second-place Matt Doherty (Canada) by more than half a foot. Vincent was sixth, leaving him 2 points down.



In the caber, McKim shined again with three 12:05 efforts, with Vincent taking third. 

The pro field also included Polish brothers Sebastian and Lukasz Wenta, Craig Sinclair (Scotland), Jimmy van der Walle (Belgium), and newbies Daniel Dorow (Germany), Vladaslov Tulacek (Czech Republic), and Nathan Burchett (USA). Five-time Highland Games world champion and now IHGF vice president and head referee Ryan Vierra was judging the caber, and he said wryly of McKim's 12:05s, "I don't give away easy 12 o'clocks."



Day two promises more excitement as the action continues and the 2106 IHGF world champion will be crowned.


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