“This past weekend at the Estes Park Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival, Matt Vincent broke the world record in the open stone put with a throw of over 64 feet.  With such a longstanding record being broken, I thought it was worth passing along to you,” Reggie Brown wrote to IronMind yesterday, and following up on on this tip, here is a summary report by Francis Brebner based on the results he was able to pull together.


Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival
by Francis Brebner

Only two weeks after the IHGF World Team Championships in Pleasanton, California, which witnessed some of the biggest throwing of the year in any one games, big numbers were still being thrown by athletes all round at the great Longs Peak Scottish Irish Festival in Estes Park, Colorado this past weekend, with one possible world record in the 16-lb open stone which is awaiting ratification.

A top line up of heavy athletes made up the field with Chad Gustin, Mike Pockoski. Matt  Vincent, Sean Betz, Rusty Price, Matt Doherty, Ryan Stewart, Dan Williams and Dan McKim.

Opening event with the 22-lb Braemar stone was a very close tussle between Dan McKim and Matt Vincent with McKim coming up trumps with a winning putt of 43' 6" over Vincent who placed second with 43' 3" with Rusty Price placing third with 41' 5".

In the next event with the 16-lb open stone, this was truly great moment of the Highland Games season with Matt Vincent blasting out a cannon ball distance of 64' 4" to set a new world record.  For second place, McKim just managed to pip Mike Pockoski by a whisker with a throw of 55' 4" with Pockoski in third place with 55' 3".

Moving onto the weights for distance, Vincent upped a gear and picked up hissecond straight win with a throw' 45' 5" over Dan McKim who placed second with 44' 2" with Sean Betz in third place with 41' 9".

The 28-lb weight for distance was no surprise as Vincent, who has been having a great season with the weights, dominated with a superior throw of 88' 2” for the win, with Dan McKim in second place with 83’ 1" and in third place, Rusty Price with a distance of 81'.

Next came the hammers, and after coming off a great past weekend in Pleasanton, winning the World Team Championships and pulling out a throw of 122' in the heavy hammer, all eyes were on McKim.  In the 22-lb. hammer, McKim come through with the goods once again with one of the biggest throw recorded of the season with a massive 125' 1"; in second, Mike Pockoski with also a tremendous throw of  121'; and in third place Canada's Matt Doherty with 113'.

The 16-lb. hammer followed and it had the crowds were on edge of their seats as the athletes came so close to the 150' mark with the top three athletes all over 140' and both McKim and Pockoski lashing out humongous throws of 147' 2”.  The win went to McKim on count back; Pockoski was in second place and Matt Doherty of Canada in third place.

Moving onto the caber, this was won by McKim with a perfect 12 o'clock toss followed by Mike Pockoski with a toss of 9:45 and in third place Sean Betz with a toss of 9:25.

The 20-lb. sheaf toss was won by Dan Williams with a height of 33'; in second place was Mike Pockoski with 31' and in third place on count back  also with 31' Dan McKim.

The final event of the competition with the 56-lb. weight over the bar which was won by Sean Betz with a height of  18'; in second place with a traffic jam at 16 '6" which was shared by Dan Williams, Dan McKim, Mike Pockoski, Chad Gustin and Matt Vincent.

Final standings
1. Dan McKim
2. Matt Vincent
3. Mike Pockoski
4. Sean Betz

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