August 3 - American Mike Dickens, World Champion 2011, did win the 2012 edition Open Dutch Masters! Although he was pushed hard by runner-up Andy Deuschle. The first event was the heavy Hammer and it featured the return of former Highland Games champion Pétur Gudmundsson who took 2nd place with a throw of 81'-2". Mike Dickens did win the event with 89'-10". In the second event, Light Weight for Distance, it was Gudmundsson who took the lead with a throw of 73'-6".
Dickens took 2nd and Andy Deuschle took 3d, as he did in the hammer event. Very respectable 4th place was Dutch master Wulbert Stam, he had a
personal record of 60 feet!
The Braemar stone was clearly won by Andy and by now non-European athletes had gained some respect for the "German Beast". He did win with a distance of 40'-3",
which would be a third place in the World records (45-49 class). Also the caber toss was for Andy..
Dutch cabers are very heavy and not really tapered so they have less momentum as compared to more tapered cabers once they are tossed. Andy had
a 12:02 with the heavy caber, Mike and Pétur took 2nd and 3d. Swiss athlete Franz Ritter did very well with the cabertoss and took some valuable points with
this event. Last event was the Weight over Bar where Andy won his next event. He put the pressure on Mike Dickens, who like a true champion
fought back and managed to settle for second place with enough points to win the contest by a margin.
Andy lost too much points with the hammer to win the overall title. Also impressive the succesfull comeback from Pétur Gudmundsson after not competing for many years. Dutch masters Wulbert Stam and Wybe Zeilstra took 6th and 11th place in a well organized contest by Harry Bergsma, speaker was former pro athlete Wout
Zijlstra. For full results see Highland Games Federation site.
Dickens took 2nd and Andy Deuschle took 3d, as he did in the hammer event. Very respectable 4th place was Dutch master Wulbert Stam, he had a
personal record of 60 feet!
The Braemar stone was clearly won by Andy and by now non-European athletes had gained some respect for the "German Beast". He did win with a distance of 40'-3",
which would be a third place in the World records (45-49 class). Also the caber toss was for Andy..
Dutch cabers are very heavy and not really tapered so they have less momentum as compared to more tapered cabers once they are tossed. Andy had
a 12:02 with the heavy caber, Mike and Pétur took 2nd and 3d. Swiss athlete Franz Ritter did very well with the cabertoss and took some valuable points with
this event. Last event was the Weight over Bar where Andy won his next event. He put the pressure on Mike Dickens, who like a true champion
fought back and managed to settle for second place with enough points to win the contest by a margin.
Andy lost too much points with the hammer to win the overall title. Also impressive the succesfull comeback from Pétur Gudmundsson after not competing for many years. Dutch masters Wulbert Stam and Wybe Zeilstra took 6th and 11th place in a well organized contest by Harry Bergsma, speaker was former pro athlete Wout
Zijlstra. For full results see Highland Games Federation site.