Land Rover G4 Challenge International Selection
All Together For The Swim
01.02.2006
Tuesday night’s swimming session was some distance away from Eastnor, in the pool at Ross-on-Wye, which gave teams the chance to practice convoy driving procedures and navigation. It’s not that easy to lose a fleet of 18 bright orange Land Rovers, accompanied by almost as many silver vehicles from the Land Rover Experience fleet … but even so it was a chance to practice under no pressure. After being instructed to keep the vehicle behind in sight it was time to use in the Sat Nav in the dashboard, learn to add way-points, and at the same time try the Tulip navigation instructions which many motor rallys use. A competitor in the back read from diagrammatic directions set alongside distance markers.
All safely at the pool it was time to change and listen to instructions for the first of two challenges, a relay race between the countries which involved diving through hoops at the bottom of the pool. The one in the deeper end proved too tough for some and there was a wide range of swimming ability, some fishes … and some bricks!
This was the first time all of the competitors had been together for a challenge, giving them a chance to meet and size up the opposing countries. In the first heat Australia was the strongest, but it was when some competitors found the swimming tough that the atmosphere came alive. Erik de Maria, the only male competitor from Brazil was cheered on but failed to dive under the deeper hoop and gave up. Then everyone cheering on the popular Taiwanese team, who were all poor swimmers. As Victor Huang fought to complete the last stage the cheering was deafening and when he touched the poolside he was hauled out and hugged by his team. Vicky Huang was in tears, overcome with emotion at their support.
For this challenge there was a final and the victors were South Africa, just ahead of the Australians. Both teams are getting a reputation as very strong competitors.
Then came an individual challenge with 8 timed lengths of the pool (200m), before it was time for a treat – an English pub lunch at the nearby Royal Oak. Some teams took a drink with their meal ... but the Irish team drank only water, and they were sat next to a Guinness pump! Now that’s dedication.See All Event Posts
