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Army wins gold in UK endurance competition
Tribune News Service

The Indian Army’s team of eight Garhwalis has emerged victorious and awarded the gold medal in the event conducted in the Cambrian mountain of Wales in the UK. The two-day patrol across marshy lands, swamps, rivers and in biting cold was conducted from October 23-25.

The winners display their medals. A Tribune photo

This is the second time an Indian team has won the event, the 4/9 Gorkha Rifles won the gold medal in 2010.

“A total of 119 teams participated in the event and half of them could not even complete it,” recounts Major Lalit Mohan Joshi, leader of the eight-member team. The participants are tested for 20 aspects during the patrol, including firing of personal weapons, obstacle crossing, administering first aid and casualty evacuation, recognition of aircraft, vehicles and equipment, artillery target indication, patrol techniques, helicopter drills, communications skills, handling prisoners of war, tactical river/stream crossing, ambush/anti ambush drills, recce techniques, tunnel crossing, navigation skills and rock climbing.

“Carrying a 30-kg load on the back during the entire tenure of the patrol was a challenge. But we had been practising for it for the past two years,” recounts Major Joshi, adding that teams which get more than 75 per cent score get the gold medal.

It is an annual international military patrolling exercise that makes its participating units cover a 50-mile (80 km) course in less than 48 hours while performing numerous military exercises placed throughout the rugged mountains and swamp lands of mid-Wales, UK.

It was set up more than 40 years ago by a group of Welsh Territorial Army soldiers who designed the training event to feature long-distance marching over the Cambrian Mountains culminating in firing. The aim of the exercise is to test leadership, self-discipline, courage, physical endurance and determination.

Maj Gen Shokin Chauhan, Additional Director General of Public Interface of the Army, called the victory "a reconfirmation of the tough training standards of the Indian Army".

In a radio chat show "Mann Ki Baat", PM Narendra Modi mentioned the Army's achievements. "You will be pleased to hear that our Army team has won a gold medal... I give my heartiest wishes," he had said.