Head's Resident Aussie Competes in Highland Games
12 Aug 2011
Gareth Care from the Junior Doctors team, is one of our resident Aussies who is currently living and working in Edinburgh. Gareth decided to fully immerse himself into Scottish culture and entered the Highland Games at North Berwick on Saturday the 6th August 2011. Gareth braved the typical Scottish summer weather (torrential rain) and entered in to the following events:
- Shot Put (16lb)
- Weight for Distance (28lb)
- Scots Hammer throw (16lb)
- Flinging the North Berwick Stane (bloody heavy)
- Weight for Height (56lb)
- Caber Toss
Gareth won the event Flinging the North Berwick Stane and threw the “stane” 5.81m. The results from last year’s event indicate that the winning throw in 2010 was 5.74 and was a new record for the event. As such Gareth is fairly confident (though its unverified) that he broke the ground/national/world record of throwing the North Berwick Stane (it isn’t thrown anywhere else in the world) with a distance was 5.81m!
Gareth said of the event ‘It was incredibly fun to get down and dirty and experience a real Highland Games from such close quarters. Despite not having tried 5 of the 6 events before I had an absolute ball. It took me back to my track and field days when I used to throw the Shot Put, Hammer and Discus. The other athletes were terrific and gave me plenty of pointers, particularly for the Caber Toss. Probably the best part of the whole day was having a friends and family there to cheers me on – including Sharon, Jen and Nicky from Head Medical! Just to complete the atmosphere and make it a true Scottish Highland Games, it poured with rain all day long and the competitors shared a couple of Belhaven pints at the end! Now that’s what I call your genuine Scottish experience!’
Good on ya Gareth!