The Over-Forties Threw the Caber in a Dutch Village and You Cannot Enter Unless You Are Invited

The Masters World Championship in Highland games heavy events was held at Driewegen in Zeeland, the Netherlands, over the weekend of 4 to 6 September, hosted by Highland Games Driewegen and presented by Scottish Athletics International.

Entry is by invitation. Invitations go to the top-ranked athletes in each age and weight class and are issued around sixteen weeks before the event; one report puts it at the world's top twelve per class. Competition is for athletes aged forty and over, and runs from Friday evening to Sunday morning.

The programme is the standard heavy list: caber toss, Braemar stone, open stone put, the twelve and sixteen pound hammers, weight throw for distance, weight over the bar for height, and the sheaf toss, in which a straw bag is thrown over a bar with a pitchfork.

Stephanie Outhwaite, a teacher and coach from Killarney in Manitoba, qualified ranked fifth in the world in the women's 45 to 49 class. She learned of the invitation in May and won her age category for Manitoba women at a Highland challenge in July. Her husband Terrill coaches her.

Jason Irvin of the United States, ranked fifth in the masters lightweight 50-plus division, funded his travel through a public appeal.