Kahanic Is Feeling ‘AJ Strong’

CUBA — The seventh annual Allegany County Celtic Festival may have been cut short due to rainy weather earlier this month, but Falconer native Nick Kahanic still came away smiling.

After going through a series of surgeries following a serious knee injury two years ago, Kahanic is finally getting his form back as a competitor in the professional Highland Games, which consist of a series of traditional Celtic strength events like the caber and sheaf toss.

Kahanic took home five of the seven events — the final two were canceled due to weather — and is continuing to recover in preparation to defend his crown at the upcoming New York State Championships on July 27 in Herkimer.

“I got to start it off with a couple of good wins and knock the rust off in some of my best events,” Kahanic said.

The Falconer native opened up with a win in the Braemar stone, taking home that event with a throw of 42 feet. Then he took home the open stone with a throw of 51 feet to begin his day with a pair of wins.

“I have a world record in that event of 63 feet, 3§ inches, but that was when I was training 20 hours a week,” he said.

Like so many other festivals and sporting events, the Allegany County Celtic Festival is committed to charity, with proceeds going to help local veterans.

“They have been putting it on since 2013, back when I was throwing at the amateur level. Now, they actually have a professional competition and they invite guys from all over. There were competitors from Missouri and guys who came down from Canada.”

Kahanic now has some added personal motivation during his competitions–evidence of which could be found on the shirt he now wears. While all of his fellow competitors wore shirts with the logos of area restaurants and businesses on them, Kahanic’s simply said the words “AJ Strong.” That motto serves as a reminder of AJ Lee, the son of Kahanic’s close friend Aaron Lee, who passed away a year ago.

Kahanic and Aaron, who is an amateur Highland Games competitor and strongman, now use the tragic loss as personal motivation.

“I showed up in my AJ Strong shirt and was warming up with that. Everyone had their competition shirts on, and my good friend Matt Hand came up to me and gave me a hug and said, ‘I know that shirt means a lot to you and I want you to represent AJ.’ That meant a lot.”

Lee had hoped to enter the amateur division of the Allegany County Celtic Festival, but was forced to change his plans at the last minute. The good news is that Aaron will still have the opportunity to compete at the upcoming state championships despite not having an event under his belt from the last calendar year.

“Aaron didn’t make it, but they are going to grandfather him in for the state championships,” said Kahanic. “Going in to the state championships I would love to defend my title in the pro class and have Aaron win the amateur division. I would love for team AJ Strong to come out with a couple of championships or to just have two of us on the podium.”