May 2016

The second Highland Games in the Netherlands have been held. The setting was the beautiful Dutch Island Terschelling. Weather conditions were just fine, and supervisor and speaker Wout Zijlstra managed a fast, smooth competition with Wulbert Stam as head referee.
There were five masters including in this competition, one pro and four amateurs. The pro-master Hans Lolkema wins the 16lbs stone put with a fantastic distance of 51 feet! The A-class consisted of 6 athletes, including master Lolkema, who faced some stiff competiton from Pieter Karst Bouma, amateur World Champion and Raynor Wortel (World Championships competitor).

Noteworthy detail: Bouma managed to throw a new Dutch record, 43.5 ft with the 56 lbs WFD! In the end Bouma wins the overall over Lolkema. But pro-master Lolkema is still going strong as he proved.
Veteran and am-competitor Wybe Zeilstra wins this time over Wilfred van Est. Master >55-class competitor Godfried Kleinmeijer was competing again
after his last competition in Scotland in 2014. Target: stay at one piece and throw some qualifying distances for the MWC 2017.
The B-class (9 competitors) had some strong contenders including four amateur masters. The overall title in the B-class would go to Arno Louwsma (International Strongman and Highland Games competitor). Master Wybe Zeilstra, who looked fitter than ever, topped the amateur master field with almost every event except the cabertoss and the WOB. The day before van Est, the caber specialist, edged out Zeilstra by a few points in the first competition in Baarland. Zeilstra started off this first competition with a personal best mark of 58.7 feet in the Light WFD event! The next day competition in Terschelling, van Est settled for second place. Johan Peperkamp finished third, with Godfried Kleinmeijer in fourth and last.

Wybe Zeilstra, who will be competing in the IHGF European Masters Championships (Germany) May 28, has some good cards to place well in this competition. He will also be competing in this year's World Masters Championships in Buffalo, Ney York (USA)..