Heavy Athletics |
The Caledonian Club of San Francisco Games proudly presents:
The 34th U.S. Scottish Heavy Events Championships
Labor Day weekend in 2008.
Click here to go to the Caledonian Club website.
Note: this was a temporary site for the Pleasanton heavies. The regular site is being re-worked and can be found at http://www.caledonian.org/athleticsinfo.html .
Event features
Over this weekend you will see no less than 50 experienced athletes on the fields. Some of these people are competitors in other heavy event fields, such as track and field, World's Strongest Man and weightlifting competitions.
Background Information
Some Background on our Games
How did it all come about? Why were the Santa Rosa Games one of the most desired competitive spots on the US (and for some, the world) Games circuit? Why does Pleasanton continue to have the magic? For a full history, please click here.
#1: we are a Scottish group. The Caledonian Club of San Francisco has been a California non-profit (hmmm...can you be Scottish and be "non-profit" at the same time?) corporation since 1865. The originators had a club picnic that first year, and it included competitive athletic events. Even today the Glaswegian - and others, of course - accent, brogue or however you want to describe it, is still predominant in the meetings and social gatherings of our Club.
#2: in 1971 P/C Malcolm Ramsay - our "Chairman Emeritus" - was Chief of our Club and saw the demonstration-type McVitie Games complete with athletic events from Scotland in San Francisco. He recognized the lack of similar caliber of competition in the Club's athletic events at the time. He purchased some of the equipment from the demo group.
#3: the organizer for the McVitie Games was David Webster - since made OBE for his outstanding service in promoting Highland Games. David assisted us then and to this day makes time in his busy schedule to be our announcer as well as assist us in the decision making process as to how to keep the best Games a place that the best athletes will want to return to year after year.
By 1975 the Caledonian Club Santa Rosa Games had reached the level of quality to be called the U S Championships in the Open class. An amateur class was added in 1976 with the arrival of Bill Anderson to compete. As the number of competitors grew the step between Amateur and Open was expanded into the A and B class. The women's and masters classes were begun at Santa Rosa in 1991. And, as the competition became keener and the number of athletes wishing to compete at our Games grew, it became necessary to begin to restrict the field thus bringing about the current invitational nature of this competition.
Miscellaneous Details
The tight schedule
It is so pleasant to compete at smaller, local games, such as Monterey or Dunsmuir, with the low-key, back-in-the-corner type competition typical to a family picnic. Many of we Caledonians long for the day when our Games was a picnic and not the intense operation if has become. For those who haven't been to Pleasanton (or Santa Rosa up to 1993), we share the competition venues (that's right - two of them) with other aspects of the "show". The large, isolated and cool green field of the morning (hammers, stones and weights-for-distance) is taken over at noon by a five-a-side soccer tournament for the rest of the day. After a brief respite in the shade for lunch we move over the the grandstand (for cabers and weights-for-height) where the end of the morning ceremonies, clan march, USMC Band demo and drum major competitions are just finishing up. We supposedly start at one and the timing is such that we are seldom held up.
It is the job of the judges and officials to estimate the pace of each class so that the athletes don't stand around too long between throws while keeping in mind that we need to finish before the 30 pipe bands come marching on for the closing ceremony but not leave a gap at the end either. Sometimes you might see us begin the farmer's walks while some guys are still slugging it out on the last 6" increment on the weight-for-height.
No walk-ons
Many people have questioned our policy of not accepting last minute entries. There are several reasons. First, the tight schedule mentioned above. Second, we receive our information during the spring and early summer Games season about who's doing what, and how he or she is doing it. Our information comes from athletes, judges, David Webster, and other athletic officials. We compare notes and send out the invitational forms to only the people we feel will give a high level of competitiveness to our Games. The third factor is time on the field: There are people who have worked hard for years to get to this level of competition. There are also those "instant successes" whom we have all seen who may well be competing here on their first year out. But these two extremes and all between know how they worked to get their "personal best" (personal highest score on any one event) up to its current level and it would be extremely unfair to let someone walk in off the street to compete with the experienced hands. Fourth, but not last: invitational means - quite simply - we invite you: you don't invite yourself!
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Copyright Jim Jardine, 1996-2008
Last updated August, 2008
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