Odd games an ancient test for warriors

Illa Thompson

Unusual Scottish-themed athletics will be one of the highlights at the annual Fort Nottingham Highland Gathering in the Midlands next Saturday, August 24.

Typically, Highland Games showcase unusual athletics events which historically were designed to show brute strength and stamina. These sporting codes have their roots in a time when clans used them to audition potential warriors, leaders and messengers to represent them.

Among the Highland codes which are still practised today are tug-o’-war which is probably the only athletic event in which the contestant moves backward!; walk the weight in which contestants carry a 75kg rock in a tight circular route within a two-minute limitation; weight over the bar where a ring of flanged steel weighing 11kg is thrown backward over a 5m pole; the stone put which is tossing a 14kg stone, and perhaps the most dramatic to watch – tossing the caber – literally throwing a 6m long, 25kg wooden pole.

This year instead of the usual kilted mile, there will be Running the Colours, a fast-paced relay race with participants passing their colours (team flag) rather than the usual baton.

The events are held in a round robin-type format for each genre. This year there are eight men and five women’s teams. The women’s teams participate in the same codes as the men, with the rules and regulations differing slightly.

“Highland Games are huge fun to watch. It is a team sport, so there is great camaraderie and support for fellow team members, with lots of cheering from fellow athletes and the audience,” said organiser Victor Muhlenbeck.