HMAS Ballarat continues the Anzac tradition
Let’s get physical

STRETCHED: ABBM Jason Ey pulls his weight in the chin-up challenge of the Ballarat Cup strong man competition.

CHESTY BOND: LSCD Kade Mitchell feels the pain with another push-up as his American opponent keeps check.

Photos: LSPH Phillip Cullinan

Volume 49, No. 15, August 24 , 2006

By Capt Lachlan Simond

It’s almost a cliche and certainly a tradition. Australian Defence personnel who are deployed overseas will find someone to engage in some form of sporting competition.
The Anzacs did it at Gallipoli with cricket and the sailors of HMAS Ballarat, currently serving in the Persian Gulf, have continued the tradition.

The role of Ballarat and her crew of more than 180 is to ensure the security of Iraqi sovereign waters and to protect Iraq’s two oil terminals. It is on one of those terminals, KAAOT (Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal), that the RAN found its opponents in the form of American Naval personnel charged with defending these platforms.

The Americans who called these platforms home were more than happy to accept the Australian challenge for a series of strong man events dubbed the Ballarat Cup.

The competition rules were simple – pairs of Australians and Americans alternatively completed repetitions of sit-ups, push-ups, heaves and dips and the team who totalled the most repetitions won the competition. In the sweltering humidity of the Gulf, this was no mean feat and the tenacity of both teams was tested on the two occasions they met.

The competition arena and its audience were probably unique in the world of international competition. On an old helipad, resting on pylons above the Gulf waters and surrounded by defensive weapons and boxes of water piled higher than many of the competitors, the competition ran.

The machinery used for the heaves and dips were simple pipes welded on to the oil platform’s floor. The audience a mixture of Australian, United States and Iraqi Defence personnel and the occasional Iraqi oil worker who looked up from their work, not quite sure what to make of the muscled bodies battling for the cup.

“I think the best thing to come out of the competition was that it broke the monotony for the Americans stuck on the oil platform and gave them a social interaction with Australians. It helped with both team’s morale and motivated us into more physical training; we are after all representing our country here,” said LSPT Matt Bell.

In a close competition, the KAAOT team beat the Aussies 2-1.

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