The Heavy Events

I don’t think any of the Asterix series ever had Asterix visiting Scotland. But they should consider it. They would have a field day with the heavy events at the highland games.

The event names for a start
Putting the light stone
Putting the heavy stone
Throwing the light hammer
Throwing the heavy hammer
Weight over the bar
Tossing the Caber
Tug of War

Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of the stones but think Beatrice Faumauina (sp?) and you sort of get the gist.

The hammer is a 16 or 22lbs metal weight on the end of a long wooden handle. In order to be able to stand firm while they are throwing everyone wears boots. Screwed to the underside of the boot is large metal plate with a long metal tongue which protrudes several inches in front of the boot.

The judges nail the starting board into position and the first competitor comes in to stand with his back to the judges and the direction he is throwing. He digs his metal tongues deep into the ground, positions and then swings his hammer.

(alright, alright so they aren’t all the same competitor but there is a fair bit of speed involved here and the blog won’t take video ok!)

Then there is the very serious business of measuring and recording how far each person has thrown

Weight over the bar requires tossing a 56lb weight on a ring backwards over a cross bar which gradually moves up in height. Lucky was the winner by the way.

The caber is probably something you have heard of. The aim of the game, (besides not doing your back in) is to pick up what is effectively a telephone pole, toss it so that it turns over vertically and lands straight ahead (12 oclock). Very very difficult to get it over at all but even if it does it usually lands at 9 o’clock or 3 o’clock.

(and no he was not hit- just some random guy failing in his attempt at a highland fling?)

And finally the tug of war