IHGF Pro World Highland Games Championships, Palmer
by Francis Brebner
The countdown continues to June 25–26, when the 2016 IHGF Highland Games World Championships will be held in the Far Northern landscape of Anchorage, Alaska. Plans for the championships have been in development over the past three years, following discussions between the IHGF and athletic director and board president Tim Kinkaid of the Alaskan Scottish Club.
Kincaid has left no stone unturned in planning this huge event, and he even traveled to Bressuire, France in 2015 to get a first-hand view of last year’s IHGF World Highland Games Championships. His club’s readiness is sure to make this year’s event—to be held at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer, Alaska—a memorable experience for all the pro athletes competing there, as well as for the spectators.
Over the past two decades, many of the world’s best athletes, such as Ryan Vierra, Jim McGoldrick, Jim Parman, Doug McDonald, and Larry Brock, have been invited by Kinkaid to compete at the Alaska Scottish Highland Games. This year’s World Championships lineup will include ten top international athletes as follows: Dan McKim (USA), Matt Vincent (USA), Nathan Burchett (USA) Matt Doherty (Canada), Sebastian Wenta (Poland), Lukas Wenta (Poland), Craig Sinclair (Scotland), Daniel Dorow (Germany), Vladislav Tulacek (Czech Republic), and Jimmy Van De Walle (Belgium). These heavies will contend over two days of competition for the coveted title of world champion, added to pages of Highland games history alongside past legends in the sport.
The winner of the 2016 IHGF World Championships will receive a very unique trophy depicting a pair of hands holding the bottom end of a caber, and the specially cast hands are none other than those of the legendary strongman and powerlifter, Bill Kazmaier, who is a resident of Anchorage.