Highlander Challenge World Championships

(Redirected from Highlander Challenge)

The Highlander Challenge World Championships (or more simply the Highlander Challenge or Gododdin Highlander Challenge) is a tournament that marries traditional Highland games with more contemporary strength athletics. It was created to help reinvigorate Highland games in Scotland by giving a modern and aspirational image while maintaining the tradition inherent in the history of the sport.

Highlander Challenge / Highlander Challenge World Championships
The official logo of the Highlander Challenge
Tournament information
LocationLast held at Glenarm Castle, Northern Ireland
Month playedJuly
Established2007
FormatMulti-event competition
Current champion
Scotland Gregor Edmunds

History

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Highland games has a long and distinguished history in Scotland. It was once claimed to be the biggest spectator sport in the country after football and as a format has been exported around the globe. In particular, it has been very successful in North America. However, in its native land, some well-informed commentators began to note that it was attracting small crowds, the format was deemed tired and the number of traditional heavy competitors was dwindling at once well-attended gatherings.[1]

Douglas Edmunds, the co-founder of the World's Strongest Man, but more pertinently a former world caber-tossing champion, determined to reinvigorate the sport in his native Scotland. Along with his son, Gregor Edmunds the 2007 winner of the World Highland Games Championships, he set about organizing a new competition that would attract some of the top names from the world from such disciplines as Highland games, strength athletics, powerlifting, and field athletics. He said "Gimmicky strength events, like truck-pulling, we feel are inappropriate when Scotland has such a magnificent history .... Sadly, some games have poor quality athletes, bad equipment, and poor quality commentary with little crowd interaction. We aim to change that."[1]

Thus was spawned the Highland Challenge. Invitees to the tournament had to meet high criteria, being either national champions, Olympians, world record-holders, World Highland Games champions, World's Strongest Man finalists, and US Highland Games champions. Having brought the earth of their homelands to the Moot Hill, in the same manner and place as allegiance was sworn to Scotland's ancient kings, contestants would enter a competition consisting of a mixture of traditional Highland games events and more contemporary strongman tests in order to vie for the title of the "Chieftain's Champion".

The 2007 event saw Sebastian Wenta win the competition and having sampled some success the next games were planned for 2008. Douglas Edmunds managed to attract a number of sponsors for the 2008 event, as well as gaining an agreement with Channel 4 to televise the event. The 2008 event took place at Scone on 19 and 20 July 2008. Such was its success that a 2009 event was planned for immediately.

Events

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The events contested are designed to echo not only the traditions of the Highland games but also the history of Scotland. They include wrestling, schiltron jousting, and stone-lifting, as well as traditional throws, such as the caber. In addition, there are re-enactments of battles including in 2008 the 1396 Battle of the North Inch starring Hal o' the Wynd.[2]

In the 2008 contest. a new event called the "whisky plunder" (sponsored by Famous Grouse) saw competitors racing with four casks.[2] Famous Grouse also sponsored the tossing the caber event, with winners toasting success with a Famous Grouse trophy and a personalised Gallon Bottle.

Past winners

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Year Champion Location
2007   Sebastian Wenta Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, Scotland
2008   Sebastian Wenta   Scone Palace, Scotland
2009   Sebastian Wenta   Glenarm Castle, Northern Ireland
2011   Gregor Edmunds   Glenarm Castle, Northern Ireland

2007: Gododdin Challenge

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Final

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The Highlander Challenge was to begin on 26 May 2007 at Blair Castle, Scotland. The games made up two half-hour episodes of the IFSA Strongman 26 programme television series. The event was also backed by Event Scotland and was conceived by Douglas Edmunds. It went by the name "Gododdin Challenge" in 2007. Sebastian Wenta edged out Gregor Edmunds by one-half-point for the victory at the Gododdin Challenge at Blair Castle. Hjalti Arnason who watched the contest commented that this made for TV event would result in excellent shows and Mike Zolkiewicz, who finished fourth said that the blend of traditional Highland games and strongman events "had great balance and it tested athletic ability beyond just a Highland games or a strongman contest."[3]

The final placings were:

# Name Nationality
1 Sebastian Wenta   Poland
2 Gregor Edmunds   Scotland
3 Kyrllo Chuprinin   Ukraine
4 Mike Zolkiewicz   United States

2008 Event

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The 2008 finals were on 19 and 20 July at Scone Palace. They were televised by Channel 4 and the announcer was Colin Bryce, an announcer on the World's Strongest Man as well as a past competitor.

Competitors

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Name Nationality Background Achievements Other Notes
Kyrllo Chuprinin   Ukraine Current national discus champion and Olympian
Stefan Solvi Petursson   Iceland Iceland's Strongest Man
Mike Zolkiewicz   United States 3 time all American discus Champion
Johannes Arsjo   Sweden Not in original programme
Sebastian Wenta   Poland Current Highlander Champion, runner-up World Strongest Man
Wout Zijlstra   Netherlands World record holder in weight for height
Neil Elliot   Scotland
Mark Felix   Grenada Not in original programme
Gregor Edmunds   Scotland Current World Highland Games Champion
Scott Rider   England Winner national shot put championship. current Braemar Highland Games and Olympic Games bobsledder.
Sean Betz   United States Not in original programme
David Barron   United States Runner-up World Highland Games Championship
Lukasz Wenta   Poland Not in original programme
Dariusz Slowik   Canada Discus thrower – 2nd Commonwealth Games; 3rd in Pan American Games Not in original programme
Larry Brock   United States Current US Highland Games Champion
Aaron Neighbour   Australia Former Australian Discus Champion Not in original programme

There were also a number of competitors who had been advertised as entrants but for a variety of reasons had to pull out:

Name Nationality Background Achievements Other Notes
Ryan Vierra   United States of America 5-time World Highland Games Champion On programme but did not compete
Gunner Pfingsten   Germany Runner-up European shot put Championship On programme but did not compete
Carl Myerscough   England British record holder in shot put On programme but did not compete
Geoff Dollan   Canada Canada's Strongest Man On programme but did not compete
Terry Hollands   England 2007 Britain's Strongest Man; 3rd place in 2007 World’s Strongest Man On programme but did not compete
Garret Johnston   United States of America All American shot and discus Champion On programme but did not compete
Mikhail Koklyaev   Russia 6 time Russian weightlifting Champion and record holder; 2 time runner-up IFSA Strongman World Championships; 3rd place in 2010 World’s Strongest Man On programme but did not compete
Saemunder Saemundsson   Iceland Icelandic Highland games record holder On programme but did not compete
Craig Sinclair   Scotland Scottish Junior Champion Advertised on Ironmind website as a contestant but did not compete[4]

Heat 1

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The competitors in the first heat were:

# Name Nationality Qualified for Final?
1 Kyrllo Chuprinin   Ukraine Q
2 Stefan Solvi Petursson   Iceland DNQ
3 Mike Zolkiewicz   United States DNQ
4 Johannes Arsjo not in programme   Sweden Q
5 Sebastian Wenta   Poland Q
6 Wout Zijlstra   Netherlands Q
7 Neil Elliot   Scotland DNQ
8 Mark Felix not in programme   Grenada DNQ

Chuprynin and Wenta dominated. Johannes Arsjo, in his first appearance in a Highland event won the whisky plunder (a 320-kg barrel carry) in a time of 14.28 seconds and overcame heavier and more experienced competitors to win the wrestling bouts.

Heat 2

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The competitors in the second heat were:

# Name Nationality Qualified for Final?
1 Gregor Edmunds   Scotland Q
2 Scott Rider   England Q
3 Sean Betz not in programme   United States Q
4 David Barron   United States Q
5 Lukasz Wenta not in programme   Poland DNQ
6 D. Slowik not in programme   Canada DNQ
7 Larry Brock   United States DNQ
8 Aaron Neighbour not in programme   Australia DNQ

Scott Rider was the overall winner, with winning throws in the stone putt and caber. David Barron winning the sheaf pitch and Sean Betz won the hammer with a throw of 139' 8½”.

Final

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Sean Betz won both the hammer and 28-lb weight for distance. Zijlstra won the Famous Grouse Challenge Caber and Arsjo beat Rider in the pole push. The 56-lb weight for height saw no-one reach 17' and was a three-way tie for first place between Arsjo, Wenta and Zijlstra. Going into the final event of the Pictish stone carry, Wenta had a 3-point lead over his closest challenger, Rider, but retained his title with by gaining a third place behind Edmunds and Arsjo.

The final placings were:

# Name Nationality
1 Sebastian Wenta   Poland
2 Scott Rider   England
3 Gregor Edmunds   Scotland
4= Johannes Arsjo   Sweden
4= Wout Zijlstra   Netherlands
6 Sean Betz   United States
7 Kyrllo Chuprinin   Ukraine
8 David Barron   United States

2009 Event

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The 2009 finals were on 14 and 15 July 2009 at Glenarm Castle. The event was sponsored by Met-Rx.[5] The event was overseen by the Earl of Antrim, who gave away the Devastator trophy.[6]

# Name Nationality
1 Sebastian Wenta   Poland
2 Kyrllo Chuprinin   Ukraine
3 Scott Rider   England
4 Wout Zijlstra   Netherlands
5 Aaron Neighbour   Australia

2011 event

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The finals of the 2011 Highlander Challenge took place on 17 & 18 June 2011 at Glenarm Castle in Northern Ireland.[7]

# Name Nationality
1 Gregor Edmunds   Scotland
2 Sebastian Wenta   Poland
3 Scott Rider   England
4 Mike Zolkiewicz   United States
5= Hans Lolkema   Netherlands
5= Neil Elliot   Scotland
7 Oskars Brugemanis   Latvia
8 Vytautas Lalas   Lithuania
9 Gary Hagen   Scotland
10 Jonathan Kelly   Ireland

References

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  1. ^ a b Highland games to be spiced up with history lessons
  2. ^ a b World athletes muscle in at Scone Palace, 18 July 2008 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday
  3. ^ Sebastian Wenta Wins Gododdin Challenge, by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. IronMind
  4. ^ "Highlander World Championships - DutchBodybuilding.com Forum". Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
  5. ^ "Ironmind June 2009 archives". Archived from the original on 31 December 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Ironmind July 2009 archives". Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Gregor Edmunds Wins Highlander Challenge World Championships". Archived from the original on 23 June 2011.