Greg Hadley – 2025 Hall of Fame Inductee 

Canadian Champion enters the Antigonish Highland Games Hall of Fame

Greg Hadley developed a compelling interest in the Ancient Scottish Heavy Events while watching throwers compete in his hometown Highland Games. By the age of 13, he was being coached by Heavy Events veterans Douglas MacDonald and Marty Gilfoy and began competing in the newly formed junior division.

Greg was inspired by seeing top athletes from around the world compete in Antigonish and by 1999 he had won his first junior crown in Antigonish. He retained his junior title the next year and by 2003 had moved up to compete at the professional level – just in time for an historic event.

In 2003 Antigonish was the proud host of the World Scottish Heavy Events Championship with the world’s best throwers coming here from Scotland, the States, Iceland, New Zealand and Holland. Greg, at age 20, was the youngest competitor and, at 200 pounds, fifty pounds lighter than the next lightest (if we can use that word) thrower, but what an opportunity for him. Greg says “I was quite jittery early on and it might have affected my performance, but that’s to be expected going into such a high-caliber competition. You have to be cool and calm as a thrower. I’ll learn from this experience. That’s the key.”

The next year, Greg put his philosophy into practice and finished second only to his mentor and multi-world record holder Doug MacDonald, competing in his last year of Heavy Events.

“2005 was a fun year on the heavy events side,” says Greg “Antigonish held a novel competition called “the Canada vs. USA Challenge”. Invited to compete were four top American throwers, three top Canadian throwers and, as a special guest on the Canadian team, Highland Games legend Alistair Gunn of Scotland. The country-versus-country format became a popular format for heavy events competitions around the world.”

2005 was a breakthrough year for Greg as he claimed his first Canadian Heavy Events title. The next year, competing in Uxbridge, Ontario, Greg won again, to lay claim to back-to-back national titles.

His title defense started with a first-place finish in the stone throw with a toss of 47 f 1 ¾ inches, a new Canadian record. “It was a bit unexpected,” said Greg “but once in a while you just pop one out there. That really got me on the right track for the weekend.”

Greg went on the take first in the 16-pound hammer throw and, throwing in the 56-lb weight for height event, he beat the second-place finisher by a wide margin. Greg was also victorious in the caber toss. He remembers that “that caber was tall – about 22 feet long,

but not that heavy. I was fortunate to come away with two 12 o-clocks which got me first place.”

Greg became the face of the sport in Antigonish, and many high-profile throwers were drawn here to compete as the Highland Society was happy to showcase and celebrate Greg’s talent and the talent of other rising stars. One of these showcases was the Canadian Scottish Heavy Events championships which coincided with the 150th anniversary of the first Antigonish Highland Games in 2013. Defending Canadian champ Jason Johnston was here to defend his title. Greg, now 28 years old and a seasoned thrower went neck and neck with the champion, winning the heavy hammer and 28-pound weight for distance events and putting himself a good position for the final competitions of the Games: the caber and the sheaf toss. Greg prevailed in the caber toss to edge out the defending champion and claim another Canadian championship, this one in front of a hometown crowd.

During his peak years Greg won six Canadian national championships, second all-time, set several national records and attained a fifth place overall as the 2009 World Heavy Events Championship. His achievements, on the heels of Doug MacDonald’s dominant performances at the world level, firmly established Antigonish as a hotbed of Heavy Events.