Luss Highland Games and comments on handicapping

Johnathan ran at the Luss Games on Sunday and competed in seven events. In the open 90 metres he ran from handicap of 3 metres and finished fourth in the Final, in the Invitation 90 metres he was off 4 metres and finished third, in the 200 metres he was off 7 metres and finished fifth, in the 400 he was fifth off 12 metres and then in the field events he was third in both the Long Jump and High Jump with a fourth in the Triple Jump to finish his day's work. Seven on Sunday and three on Saturday - 10 events in two days is not bad for one weekend - even Bobby Young hasn't done that many!

Handicapping has always been a difficult one for the Games officials with so many athletes in so many age categories with some competing maybe twice a season and others over a hundred times. It does seem strange that Johnathan had a mark of 23 metres for the 200 at Airth (Scotland's oldest Games) but only 7 metres at Luss. At Airth he was conceding starts of up to 26 metres in 90. The longer distance races see some funny things such as the back marker starting apparently ahead of the limit man. This because the track at some venues is less than 400 metres and the front man is off more than that. eg the track at Airth was 320 metres round, the back marker in the 3200 was off 20 metres and the limit man had a start of 540 metres! In the 800 the back marker was off 50 metres with the limit man having a distance of 185 metres. It all adds to the fun of the day with pipe bands, highland dancers, wrestlers and heavy athletes all taking part.