| Location | Varies (last held in Windsor, Maine, USA) |
|---|---|
| Establishment | 1980 |
| Format | Multi-event competition |
| Current champion | Vladislav Tuláček (2025) |
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.[1]
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.[2]
List of champions
List information taken from this source.[3]
- Source of the above information: Official World Championship site of the IHGF.
Championships by country
| Country | Gold |
| 21 | |
| 7 | |
| 7 | |
| 7 | |
| 1 |
Repeat champions
| Champion | Times |
|---|---|
| Geoff Capes | 6[2] |
| Jim McGoldrick | 5 |
| Ryan Vierra | 5 |
| Matt Sandford | 5 |
| Daniel McKim | 4 |
| John Van Beuren | 3 |
| Grant Anderson | 2 |
| Matt Vincent | 2 |
References
- ^ Roll of Honour
- ^ Although 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, ISBN 1-56554-560-5, ISBN 978-1-56554-560-1). 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), ISBN 0-926888-06-4). Further still, on his official website, Capes states that he was six times world champion.
- ^ "Table of final results (1978 - present)". Archived 2010-01-03 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ The Gathering 2009 Official website
- ^ The 2014 World Highland Games Heavy Events Championships
- ^ "The IHGF Worlds in Bressuire: And the winner is...Dan McKIM - HIGHLAND GAMES BRESSUIRE, le blog français-anglais d'Alain Cadu". 15 June 2015.
- ^ "Dan McKim Wins IHGF World Highland Games Championships"
- ^ "Spencer Tyler Wins Webster Worlds"