International Highland Games Federation (IHGF) president Francis Brebner called the action from the first day of the IHGF Amateur Highland Games World Championships for IronMind.




IHGF World Amateur Highland Games Championships—Day One
by Francis Brebner
 
The IHGF World Amateur Highland Games Championships was held on the grounds of the beautiful and luxurious Fefor Høifjellshotell, 2800 feet above sea level, surrounded by mountains and overlooking Loch Fefor in Vinstra, Norway. Thirteen athletes gathered from around the globe for the two-day competition, starting with the 16-lb. hammer on day one. Germany’s Daniel Dorow won with 38.85 m (127’ 5-1/2”), to second place Martin Schiller’s (Austria) 38.65 m (126’ 10”) and third-place Raynor Wortel’s (Holland) 38.50 m (126’ 4”).
 
Dorow once again showed great form in the 22-lb. hammer, dominating with a distance of 31.15 m (102’ 2-1/2”), followed by Wortel at 30.95 m (101’ 6-1/2”) in second and Schiller at 30.85 m (101’ 2-1/2”).
 
In the 28-lb. weight for distance, Dorow pulled off his third straight win with a class throw of 22.30 m (73’ 2”); USA’s Duncan McCallum was in close second position at 21.59 m (68’ 11”) and Poland’s Rafal Kobylarz at 20.45 m (67’ 1”) took third.
 
The 56-lb. weight for distance was a close event between McCallum and Dorow, with both tying in the first round, but in the third round McCallum upped it a gear to go ahead with 11.80 m (38’ 8-1/2”) for the win. Dorow took second with 11.54 m (37’ 10”) and Stuart Anderson (Scotland) was third with 11.32 m (37’ 2”).


The caber, 16’ long and 127-lb., was won with a series of class tosses by Anderson, with a best of 12:00 and12:01. In second place Kobylarz also had a 12:00 toss, and Wortel in third did 12:05.    
 
The final event of day one was a climax in the 56-lb. weight for height, with a dour weight. Kobylarz surprised us all by easily clearing the height of 16’ for the win and thereafter going straight up to the height of 18’ 1” to attempt the amateur world record; while the height was good—it looked to be about 19’ 6”—the weight did not cross the bar. On countback second place went to McCallum, who cleared 15’, and third place to Canada’s Curtis Durocher, also at 15’.



Going into day two and the concluding events of the 2015 IHGF Amateur World Highland Games Championships, Dorow leads with 17 points, followed by Kobylarz at 23 and Wortel at 26.

Also on Day two is the first leg of the IHGF World Stones of Strength World Series, with nine athletes competing in five events.
 
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