No pain no gain

The pain and determination shows on this competitor’s face.

Photo: ABPH Paul McCallum

An event of individual endurance, determination and athletic ability was held at HMAS Creswell recently with plenty of blood, sweat and tears.

Out of the five New Entry Officer Course divisions passing through, one male and one female competitor volunteered from each division to compete in the CMDR Gray Cup.

The event is designed to test individual performance in a series of physical challenges.

With 10 disciplines in total, some examples were maximum chin- ups in two minutes, an ergometer test over three minutes on the rower, agility run, maximum push ups, 100m sprint and maximum distance covered in a 12- minute run.

Scores were determined on the basis that the winner of any particular activity scores 100 per cent. Less successful competitors accrued a percentage of the best score.

The most successful aggregated score across all 10 activities determined the individual winners of the cup. Over the course of two hours all competitors gave their utmost.

The male contingent started the afternoon with the chin up category. Once all five were through it was straight onto the next event, followed by the female competitors.

With limited rest time, fatigue quickly set in.

Competitors were cheered on by colourful divisional teammates, who were competing for the prize of best theme/dressed division.

Plenty of blood, sweat and tears were shown, all entrants displaying true grit and a dogged determination to be better than the other and putting in a good show for their Division.

Nearing sunset, the final event kicked off.

A run of 12 minutes around Creswell’s Quarterdeck had competitors setting a blistering pace in anattempt to run as far as possible in the allocated time.

After calculating the results, MIDN Matthew Murray of Bass Division won the male category and MIDN Ainsley Slattery of Flinders Division won the female category.

Jervis Division took out the best Theme/Dress award.

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