Heavyweights get ready to rumble at Blackford Games

The Highland games circuit’s top heavyweights are expected to go head to head for the first time this summer at Blackford today.

Reigning champion Lukasz Wenta and his arch-rival, English ex-Olympian Scott Rider, have picked the Perthshire event to make their 2018 debuts, it is believed.

With the weekend weather set fair, organisers are predicting a bumper crowd, with the strongman events the centrepiece of the day’s entertainment.

Neither Wenta nor Rider travelled to Gordon Castle, Moray, for last weekend’s curtain-raiser. But the Blackford Games – always held on the last Saturday in May – traditionally attracts all the main challengers for the title.

Wenta – a 6ft 5in Polish personal trainer from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire – is the 4-7 favourite with McBookie.com to win at the weekend, with former Team GB shot putter Rider 7-4.

Last year both were beaten at Blackford by Czech man-mountain Vlad Tulacek, who is 8-1 to repeat the shock result. Scotland’s leading contender, Perthshire’s Lorne Colthart, has emigrated to Canada so the native-born challenge is expected to come from central belt athlete Kyle Randalls and north-east joiner Craig Sinclair, who won last week at Gordon Castle.

Competitors accumulate points as they are tested in a series of events designed to show how far and high they can throw, and how well they can toss the caber.

Locals will also have the chance to measure up against the kilted giants because registrations from all-comers are welcomed, even on the day.

The games will feature traditional running and cycling events, too, alongside tug o’ war and Highland dancing competitions.

This year will be the 149th gathering in Blackford, with ex-world champion wrestler Bill Ross the chieftain for the day.

Tickets for the event – which begins at 12.30pm with a parade to the field – are £7 for adults, £5 for seniors and students and £2 for children. Under-fives go free.