The World Highland Games Championships is an annual Highland Games championships organised by David Webster, OBE of Scotland. It is regarded the pinnacle of modern day Highland Games.
A roll of past competitors includes world's greatest strength athletes with former World's Strongest Man winners, Olympians, Commonwealth Games medal winners, Guinness World Records holders, physique champions, and continental & national titleholders in various sports.Roll of Honour
The World Highland Games Championships consist of traditional events and are in this sense differentiated from many of the other international strength athletic competitions, including Highlander World Championships.
History The World Highland Games Championships were first held in 1980 and were created as an attempt to identify who was truly the greatest Highland Games competitor. Many of the Highland Games competitions around the world have traditionally not been invitational, in the sense that novices can step up to compete, or at the more established events, the competitors were very much more selected from the nation in which the competition was held.
The world's introduced a formalization of the requirements for entry and a truly international flavour. Since the passing of David Webster in 2023, the responsibility of managing and directing the World Highland Games Championships was transferred to Steve Conway and Dr. Bill Crawford. Tommy De Bruijn and Thomas Kincaid are also current prominent figures within the championships' management.
Over the years competitors have been drawn from the disciplines of field athletics, including the shot put, discus and hammer throw, as well as strength athletes and dedicated Highland Games specialists.
In the history of the championships, there have been 21 champions representing five countries, with four men each having won the title five times, Geoff Capes, Jim McGoldrick, Ryan Vierra and Matt Sandford, and one of those, Capes having also won the 1981 World Highland Games Championships held in Lagos, which would make him six times world champion, although this is not listed on the official website.
List of champions List information taken from this source. YearChampionLocation1980 Grant Anderson Los Angeles, California, United States1981 Geoff Capes Lagos, Nigeria1981 Bill Anderson Melbourne, Australia1982 Grant Anderson Prestonpans, Scotland1983 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, ScotlandAlthough the IHGF state on their official website that Geoff Capes won the World Heavy Championship in 1983 in Lagos in their IHGF Champions page (here) the 1983 championship finals were held in Carmunnock, as stated in the Development section of IHGF's same website (here). The location of the 1983 championships being Carmunnock is corroborated by Emily Ann Donaldson in her book The Scottish Highland Games in America (Emily Ann Donaldson, The Scottish Highland Games in America, p19, Pelican Publishing, 1986, , ). In Donaldson's book, it is mentioned that a World Championship was held in Lagos in 1981 and Capes won this. The book states that the World Heavy Events Championships was also held in 1981 in Melbourne. From this evidence, it would seem that there were two World Championships held in 1981, both sponsored by the IHF. Further corroborating the existence of the 1981 Lagos World Championships is the profile of Geoff Capes written by the founder of the IHF, David Webster, who states that Capes won his first world title in 1981 in Lagos. (David Webster, Sons of Samson Volume 2 Profiles, page 78 (Ironmind Enterprises), ). Further still, on his official website, Capes states that he was six times world champion.1984 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland1985 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland1986 Geoff Capes Carmunnock, Scotland1987 Geoff Capes Clarkston, Scotland1988 Jim McGoldrick Aviemore, Scotland1989 Jim McGoldrick Aviemore, Scotland1990 Jim McGoldrick Glasgow, Scotland1991 Jim McGoldrick Callander, Scotland1992 Jo Quigley Callander, Scotland1993 Jim McGoldrick Callander, Scotland1994 George Patience Callander, Scotland1995 Alistair Gunn Kilmarnock, Scotland1996 Ryan Vierra Waipu, New Zealand1997 Ryan Vierra Fredericksburg, Virginia1998 Ryan Vierra Oulu, Finland1999 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California2000 Matt Sandford Waipu, New Zealand2001 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California2002 Matt Sandford Pleasanton, California2003 Matt Sandford Antigonish, Nova Scotia2004 Bruce Aitken Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States2005 Ryan Vierra Fergus, Canada2006 Ryan Vierra Pleasanton, California2007 Gregor Edmunds Inverness, Scotland2008 Sean Betz Bridgeport, West Virginia2009 Aaron NeighbourThe Gathering 2009 Official website Edinburgh, Scotland "Gathering of the Clans"2010 Larry Brock Victoria, Canada "30th Anniversary"2011 Daniel McKim Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States2012 Matt Vincent Fergus, Canada2013 Daniel McKim Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States2014 Matt Vincent Dunfermline, ScotlandThe 2014 World Highland Games Heavy Events Championships2015 Daniel McKim Bressuire, France2016 Scott Rider Halkirk, Scotland2017 Daniel McKim Hank, Netherlands2018 Chuck Kasson Victoria, Canada2019 Spencer Tyler Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States2022 John Van Beuren Pleasanton, California, California, United States2023 John Van Beuren Fergus, Canada2024 John Van Beuren Glengarry, Canada2025 Vladislav Tuláček Maine, United States
Source of the above information: Official World Championship site of the IHGF.
Championships by country CountryGold 21 7 7 7 1
Repeat champions ChampionTimes Geoff Capes 6 Jim McGoldrick 5 Ryan Vierra 5 Matt Sandford 5 Daniel McKim 4 John Van Beuren 3 Grant Anderson 2 Matt Vincent 2
References