Star performance from Raeburn as 4500 people attend Halkirk Highland Games
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A CROWD of over 4500 people turned up for the Halkirk Highland Games on Saturday.
They saw three new ground records being established – two in the heavy competition and one in the track and field.
A record was also set in the confined-to-Caithness section in the long jump.
American Rusty Price set two ground records in the 16lb ball and the 22lb ball. In the former he beat the 55-feet-six-inch record established by fellow American Ryan Vierra in 2005 by four inches.
In the latter he bettered by just one inch the record of 49 feet seven inches set by Australian Matt Sandford in 2003. But, despite an impressive performance, he could not prevent the heavy championship going to his fellow American, Mike Pockoski, who won a total of three trophies.
However, the star performance of the day came from Andrew Raeburn, of Thurso, who created a ground record in the hop, step and leap and established a confined-to-Caithness record in the long jump.
He beat by one-quarter of an inch the record of 45 feet five-and-a-quarter inches set by A. Strange, from Fort William, in 2008 and demolished his own confined-to-Caithness record of 18 feet 10 inches in the long jump with a massive leap of 20 feet five-and-a-half inches.
Raeburn also won the 85 and 200-metre races and took third place in the 800 metres and the high jump on his way to winning the Caithness championship and sharing the open title with Fraser Davidson, from Aberdeen. Raeburn also won five other cups, including the Prince Henry Sinclair Trophy for the most outstanding performance by a Caithness competitor.
In the cycling Craig Hardie, from Dalgety Bay, in Fife, won the open championship while Thurso’s Allan Clark took the Caithness title with Ben Arnold, from Wick, securing the under-16 open championship after a keenly contested tussle with Edward Fletcher, from Grantown-on Spey.
The open dancing championship for 16 years and over was won by Laura Smith, from Cairnie, near Huntly.
Games treasurer Neen Banks was delighted with the response from the public and the gate takings of £12,557 which was up by more that £1000 on the previous best total.
* For all the results and more photos see Wednesday’s Caithness Courier.
* Were you at the games? What was your highlight of the day? Comment below.
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