This has been by far the best ever Highland Games event. It’s success is not only due to the blessed weather we had or the large range of activities, music and cultured events that were on display but the competitors that were on show were of the highest standard. This year we had a range of competitors that were truly from all 4 corners of Ireland, 13 competitors in total, they were:

Last year’s champion Jonathan Kelly, Co Antrim

Peter McCallan, Co Tyrone

Barry Delaney, Co Meath

Darragh O’Shea, Co Kildare

Graham Rennie, Co Antrim

Chris McNaughton, Co Antrim

Dylan Scally, Co Meath

Adnan Berisha, Co Waterford

Larry Murtagh, Co Meath

Jason Reilly, Co Meath

Nigel Troy, Co Tipperary

Barry Webb, Co Armagh

Ray O’Dwyer, Co Tipperary

The field was in perfect condition, very level and there was the feeling that records were going to be broken this day. The atmosphere was fantastic due to the huge crowds in attendance, 3000+.

The first event was:

24lb stone putt, the winner completely out on his own was Jonathan Kelly, with a distance of 35 foot 6 inches. Second was Barry Delaney with 31 foot 6 inches. Third was Larry Murtagh with 29 foot 9 inches

28lb Weight for Distance

This was a fantastic event as last year’s Highland Warrior Champion, Jonathan Kelly set a new Irish Record of 64 foot 5 inches. Nigel Troy of Tipperary also made a magnificent throw of 59 foot 6 inches to secure second place in this event, this at the time was only 3 inches off the old record before Jonathan’s throw. Third was Ray O’Dwyer with a distance of 51 foot 8 inches.

42lb Weight for Height

The winner of this event was Jason Reilly by throwing a height of 16 foot 6 inches, second was Pete McCallan who also through 16 foot 6 inches but had more misses than Jason in the earlier rounds, third was Nigel Troy throwing 16 foot.

16lb Hammer

This for me was the most disappointing event due to no-one being able to break over 100 foot as they have done in previous years, the winner though Jonathan Kelly with a distance of 98 foot 2 inches, second was Ray O’Dwyer with 95 foot 8 inches and third was Barry Delaney was 92 foot 5 inches.

22lb Sheaf for Height

A great event with 4 guys at the last in an Irish Record Breaking battle, joint third Nigel Troy and Ray O’Dywer going out at a magnificent height of 20 foot. Second was Pete McCallan going out at a great height at 21 foot, but our record breaker, breaking his second record of the day was Jonathan Kelly, Carnmoney’s finest with a height of 23 foot, a new Irish Record.

Scottish Wrestling was between Graham Rennie and Dylan Scally, it was the of 5 though Dylan looked so close to winning each bout Graham with youth on his side showed all his guts and determination to win all 3 bouts.

Caber Toss

There were 2 cabers which had to be tossed, the smaller one (20 foot) had to be tossed before attempting the second (22 foot) which was the biggest caber ever in the Irish Strength Association. Most guys managed to toss the first caber with successful tosses. The best tosses of the day were two 1155 by Larry Murtagh and Ray O’Dwyer. Second to them was Darragh O’Shea and Barry Delaney both doing a 1 O’Clock. Nobody managed to toss the second caber within the competition but Ray O’Dwyer the number one tosser in Ireland only ever beaten in the caber toss in 4 year managed to toss the caber immediately after the competition for the unlooking crowd and it was great to see, well done Ray.

The overall points are as follows:

Highland Warrior Series One Results

1^st Jonathan Kelly, Co Antrim 66 pts 5 pts

2^nd Ray O’Dwyer, Co Tipperary 62.5 4pts

3^rd Barry Delaney 58.5 3pts

4^th Nigel Troy, Co Tipperary 58 2pts

5^th Pete McCallan, Co Tyrone 51 1pts

6^th Jason Reilly, Co Meath 50.5

7^th Larry Murtagh, Co Meath 49

8^th Darragh O’shea, Co Kildare 40

9^th Chris McNaughton, Co Antrim 39

10^th Graham Rennie, Co Antrim 25

11^th Dylan Scally, Co Meath 12

12^th Adnan Berisha, co Waterford 11.5

13^th Barry Webb, Co Armagh 9.5

The winner of the Novice Highland Games with 62.5 pts was Ray O’Dwyer, second with Barry Delaney with 58.5 pts and third was Pete McCallan with 51 pts

All in all a great day and we are looking forward to the 7^th August in Dungannon Park for series two of the Highland Warrior Trophy.