Athletes at the seventh annual Kachemak Bay Celtic Club Scottish Highland Games set new field records last Saturday at Karen Hornaday Park. In a first for the games, Matthew Patterson of Fort Wainwright successfully threw the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 Challenge Caber. On his second try, Patterson flipped the 110-pound, 18-foot, 11-inches log, something that has never been done in the history of the challenge caber.
Patterson also set a new field record of 66-feet, 9-inches in the 28-pound weight-for-distance throw. Tim Dommek also set a record of 86-feet, 3.5 inches in the hammer throw. Patterson won the amateur men’s division with Dommek second.
The Highland Games were part of CelticFest, a two-day celebration of Celtic culture that began on Friday with an outdoor concert by Celtic-rock group Tempest. The weekend also included a gathering of the clans.
Twenty athletes, including a field of five women, competed in events like the weight-for-height throw, sheaf toss, hammer throw, Braemar stone throw and the caber toss. Athletes also participated in unique-to-Homer events like the halibut throw and the golf bag throw. The games also featured the Kilted Mile. The first-place winners are:
• Amateur men, light: Nelson Alger
• Amateur men: Matthew Patterson
• Amateur men, novice: William Deaver
• Amateur women: Jeni McDaniel
• Masters men: Max Sadtler
Travis Ogden competes in the weight-for-height event at the Kachemak Bay Celtic Club Scottish Highland Games last Saturday as judge Perren Baker of Nampa, Idaho, watches. Ogden, a member of Kachemak Emergency Services, was one of several local volunteer firefighters and medics competing.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Max Sadtler tosses the sheaf as other athletes watch at the Kachemak Bay Celtic Club Scottish Highland Games last Saturday.-Photo by Michael Armstrong
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Kathy Buys, left, on fiddle, and Lief Sorbye, right, on mandolin, perform with Tempest last Friday at Karen Hornaday Park for the opening of CeltFest and the Highland Games. They played several songs based on Robert Burns poems. For photos and results of the games, see page 12.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
