Fulda Challenge

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Tow Truck Tugging

Nick Lees & Caroline Pick / 03.02.2004

Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) Two of Britain\'s top adventure athletes are tied for fourth place after the first event of the 4th annual Fulda Tyres Arctic Challenge. Competitors had to pull a truck weighing about 2.5 tonnes down the ice-covered main street in Whitehorse, the Yukon capital.

Fourth place is as good as the British duo – C/Sgt. Gary Bullen (39) a physical training instructor from the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre at Exmouth, and Gill Watson (also 39) a fitness instructor and adventure athlete from Derby – could have expected.

\"We are both lightweights compared with athletes on some of the other international teams,\" said Bullen. \"There are lots of events we expect to do well in, particularly cross-country skiing and the half-marathon on the Arctic Circle. I once trained in Norway for 18 months, which should help.\"

Watson commented: \"It was nearly impossible to get traction on ice wearing big, rubber-soled Arctic boots, but I think we did quite well.� After the stage they were tied with the German Toyota and Swiss teams, on 14 points.

In this opening event it was the Austrian team who scored the maximum 18 points. Gitti Koeck, 33, Nagano Olympic snowboard bronze medallist in the giant slalom, combined with team mate Christian Meier, also 33, to take maximum points. \"I had a feeling we were going to do well,\" said Koeck, from Mils, near Innsbruck, after she\'d pulled the truck nearly seven metres in the three-minute time limit on the icy street.

The six-feet-two-inches-tall athlete added: \"You had to use every muscle in your body to move the truck. There was little traction beneath your feet. And you very quickly ran out of gas.\"

Said Meier, who teaches both snowboarding and skiing near Kitzbual: \"I didn\'t have time to train and was very pleased with the result. I work on a ski hill all day at between 1,500 and 2,000 metres, and after a day in the fresh air and at that altitude, you don\'t feel like working out.\"

Tied for second place (16 points) with the Italian team were Canadian husband and wife team Greg and Denise McHale, from Dawson City, both experienced adventure racers. They were cheered on by a crowd of locals who braved - 24C conditions to cheer on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, and his fitness instructor wife.
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