The Worlds Are Coming to the Games
World Champion John Van Beuren at The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games in 2023
When the Glengarry Highland Games comes to mind, the first thought is about the pipe bands and the amazing massed bands. One of the second things is most likely the heavy events where athletes wow the audience with their awesome skills of strength.
This year for the 75th edition of the Games, the heavy events will be even more exciting as strongmen from around the world descend upon Maxville for the 43rd Scottish Heavy Events World Championships to be held Saturday, August 3, 2024, starting at 9am.
The ten invited professionals include entries from Canada, USA, Belgium, the Czech Republic and of course, Scotland. World Champion John Van Beuren from the USA will be looking to add a third straight title to his wins in 2022 and 2023. All of these athletes are at their peak form and will be looking to set more World Records in events like the Hammer, the Braemer Stone, the Weight for Distance and the 56 lb Weight Over Bar. This year’s final Challenge Caber will be a not-to-miss event as these athletes should put on an impressive display of strength and agility.
The Scottish Heavy Events World Championships began with David Webster, OBE, who was a familiar face at the Games for his visits where he provided the colour commentary for the heavy events in his entertaining Scottish brogue. David had a vision of spreading Heavy Athletics around the world to promote not only athletics from Scottish games but all of Highland Games held anywhere. To do this, personally invited athletes came together to compete at the first championships in 1980 and from there the Scottish Heavy Athletics World Championships have sprung with many World Records being set. Twenty athletes from all corners of the world are now among the legends who have claimed the title “Scottish Heavy Athletics World Champion”!
World’s Championships co-Director Bill Crawford explains,
” David’s vision was to grow the level of competition in heavy events by holding the World’s in different countries around the globe. We have met competitors at other games who have told us about Maxville and its rich and long history and we are thrilled to come to the Glengarry Highland Games and continue David’s work.”
While the World Championships will be the one of the highlights at this year’s Games, there will be lots more heavy events taking place. On Friday at 8am, Amateur Heavyweight competitors from across Glengarry start off a full day of this fan favourite event. At 10 am, the professional women show that they also excel in this sport when Susan Lajoie, former Games and Canadian Champion from Nova Scotia, will be back to compete against last year’s winner Morgan Palmer from New York state and former winner Elizabeth (MacDonald) King. The eleven professional athletes in the field, most who also compete at the Nationals, should provide a very strong competition. At 1pm, be prepared to be impressed when the Masters Division take place with local favourites Jason Baines from Dalkeith and Lee MacKinnon from Lancaster back to compete against recent champions, Kevin Robinson from New Brunswick and Danny Frame from Nova Scotia. As Games Heavy Events Director Tammy MacSweyn says,
”This year’s heavy events have a strong field of past Games, National and World Champions and we are hoping for some pretty big throws and seeing some World records smashed at our event, and of course, good weather and lots of sunshine would help”.