Congratulations to Cpt Alastair Heathcote of the Blues and Royals who won Olympic Silver as part of the Men's Eight Rowing Team.  

The British Team were up against Olympic Champions the USA, World Champions Canada, plus Australia, the Netherlands, and Poland.

A powerful Canada eight led from the start and never looked likely to relinquish first place. A full boat length in front by the halfway point, the GB Team fought back strongly in the closing 250m to ensure a tight finish, but there was simply not enough water left to overhaul Canada. But keeping the USA at bay, the GB rowers finished in a time of 5:25.11 to take Silver.

Heathcote, who rows in position 6, spoke to Garrison FM during his training in Reading, and then live from Beijing after the A Final to give us his thoughts on the race, and an insight into life in the Olympic Village.

But Alastair Heathcote was not the only British soldier to compete in Beijing. 2^nd Lt Robin Bourne-Taylor of the Lifeguards took part in the Men’s Pair event. Sadly, he and his partner only won the C Final to take 13th position - but then again, to actually make it to the Olympics is a stunning achievement in itself.

 The Royal Logistic Corps Sports Awards were held at the RLC Open Day at Deepcut on 28th June. The RLC Sports Personality of the Year was Staff Sergeant Steve Hutchinson 8 Transport Regiment who won eveyone's respect for his tremendous success as an international skier, after an accident which paralysed his right arm. He spoke to me about the award and his hopes for the future.

I also managed to catch up with the guest presenter for the day, Olympic 400 metres Silver Medalist Roger Black MBE, who chatted about his training with former Army athletes Chris Akabusi. He was incredibly positive about sport in the British Army and, at the end of the interview, urged soldiers to take advantage of the wealth of facilities available to them.

I had my first taste of orienteering when Army Orienteering Assoc Development Team Manager WO1 Calvin Routledge invited me down to Ringwood Forest for one of Military League South’s events. I faired better than I expected, but I can reassure you that current Army Champion Maj Richard Barrett (pictured left) has nothing to worry about!

As well as the fitness aspect, Routledge explained that this is an excellent way to prepare for the likes of the Cambrian Patrol, Special Forces Selection or, at the very least, become a competent and confident navigator at unit level. If you want more information, on the AOA you can email armynav@hotmail.com 

GB National Telemarking team captain Maj Andrew Clarke is one of three soldiers who took part in the Telemark World Cup Finals which took place in mid March. He then went on to compete at the World Championships in Switzerland where his final ranking was 66th in the world (out of some 120 competitors). If you don't know the sport, Telemarking is a mixture of alpine skiing and cross country skiing, with a bit of ski jumping thrown in for good measure, and Clarke popped into Garrison FM before he left to tell us more about the sport – both nationally, and within the British Army.

Clarke was also keen to thank the Royal Artillery Institute and Defence Academy Welfare Fund for their support. If you’d like to find out more about Army Telemark and register your interest, you can contact WO1 Chris Marren on 94 661 2812 or email chris_marren@hotmail.com You can also check out www.gbtelemark.co.uk

In Bobsleigh, the World Championships took place on the 2nd and 3rd February in St Moritz Switzerland – the birth place of bobsleigh, and the only natural bobsleigh track in the world.

Before the event, former GB1 breakman Cpl Jackie Davies told ASN that she was trying to keep her aims realistic with a top ten finish at the event - a reflection of her decision to split from her Olympic partner to return to driving. After recruiting breakman last summer, Davies chose LCpl Paula Walker with whom she has been competing on the Europa Cup circuit. Known as the development circuit, the pair finished in 2nd position which, apart from qualifying them for the World Championships, has allowed them to move up onto the World Cup circuit.

At the World Championships, the girls finished in 14th position out of 25 competitors. After the competition, Davies told us that she was perfectly happy with the result, and that it is a solid platform from which to move forward.

Meanwhile over the same weekend, the Inter Service Formula Windsurfing Championship took place at Portland Harbour in Weymouth. A lack of wind on the Sunday meant that only four races were completed - all on the first day, in offshore winds of 14-18 knots. But the racing was still estremely exciting, with no love lost between the competitors. In the individual Championship, a close battle raged, mainly between Army Windsurfing Secretary Maj Gareth Baker and Flt Lt Mark Thompson of the RAF, with the overall lead exchanging after each race in the competition. In the end though it was Baker who eventually took the title. The Novice Individual title went to LCpl Neil Vidot. And in the Team Championships, the Army led by Cpt Allan Cross romped away with an early lead which continued throughout - clearly showing clean heels to the chequered flag . . . and finally taking the title with 125 points.

And on the subject of windsurfing, Cpt Mark Collins popped into Garrison Radio to tell us about the Army expedition to Hawaii. Check out the Army windsurfing website!

Hayling Island played host to a week of Army windsurfing training, competition and Championships, and I was delighted to spend the final couple of days down there.

The week commenced with novice training, and newcomer Neil Vidot making his mark to become Novice Champion. This was followed on the Wednesday by the final race of the Inter Corps Series which, due to lack of wind at the Forces Open Championships in May, only had 4 out of the 6 races take place. Once again, the RLC retained their team title but, with Cpt Allan Cross out of the running for some of the races, it was Maj Gareth Baker who came through to take the Individual title.

Cross may not have been able to compete in all of the Inter Corps events, but he did make his presence felt during the week, not least in the Army Championships. Defending his title, he put up a determined fight, eventually seeing off Doc White and Gareth Baker by just one point to become the Army individual Champion for the third consecutive year - obviously forgetting that he had had a quadruple heart bypass in November last year. But then this is the man who successfully defended his Army Slalom Title for the 3rd year and then went on to win the Forces Open Championships this May.

Also, there to watch his success was Maj Gen Christopher Elliott Director Army Sport Control Board – a secret sailor it seems. Gen Christopher recently came into Garrison FM to talk about sports grants. There is a lot of financial support available, and it covers everything from sports equipment to travel.

The Combined Services Twenty20 Cricket Tournament was held in Aldershot on 14th June, in somewhat overcast conditions. But that did not spoil the event - particularly for the Royal Navy who took the title. They commenced by beating the Army on the last run of the first innings to win by 3 wickets.

Hopes that the RAF would beat the Navy in the second match were also dashed. It looked as if the RAF would run away with the innings, but half way through they seemed to simply collapsed, leaving the Navy with their second win - and therefore the Tournament.

With the third innings almost redundant, the Army set out to make some mark but they failed again, thanks to a fantastic knock by the Combined Services Team Captain Flight Lt Tim Addcock 82 not out.

At the end of play, I caught up with Army Team Captain Cpt James Fulton who, although obviously very disappointed with the result, vowed to take back the cup next year.

I also managed to have a chat with former England International and Middlesex player, and now Head Coach and Director of Cricket John Embury who was there to hand out the prizes. He told me that he had spotted some real talent on the field, but gave away no names. Watch this space!

The Army v Navy Rugby Union Match at Twickenham is one of the highlights of the Army sporting calendar. Never more so than this year, when the Army were defending their title for the fourth time. If they retained it, then they would be setting a record which, according to Senior Coach and Director Army Elite Rugby Lt Col Andy Hickling would unlikely to be achieved by either team again. So could we do it? Well the conditions made life very difficult. Rain and drizzle left the pitch greasy, unforced errors were rife, and passes were few and far between.

In the first half, the Army kept the Navy at bay, and Sgt Mal Roberts scored in the 6th, 25th and 30th minutes to give us 9 penalty points. At half time, I chatted to an enthusiastic Maj Gen Christopher Elliott Director of the Army Sport Control Board who gave me a prediction of double figures for the Army by the end of play. He was, I’m afraid, a little optimistic. Conditions did not improve in the second half, but the Navy did. In the 32nd minute Navy Team Capt Dave Pascoe took a penalty and scored. But that was as far as it went. And the final score: Army 9 Navy 3.

The Babcock Trophy was in Army hands for a record 5th time. Afterwards I grabbed an interview with Army Team Captain, Capt Ed Smith, and Man of the Match (for the second time) Lt Mark Lee. Both were happy to have won - even if play had been a bit stilted, but Mark didn’t seem to mind. In fact he enjoyed the conditions. Sliding in the mud, he told me, was perfect for a Flanker!

The 18th Commonwealth Games boasted 12 soldiers from British Army competing for their various countries. Sgt Davy 'bud' Beatie took home silver for Northern Ireland in the trap shoot, but when he spoke to me, it was obvious that he was incredibly disappointed at missing Gold by just one shot.

Meanwhile, Pte Apolisi Satala captained the Fijian Rugby Union 7s and came face to face with colleague Cpt Mark Lee captaining Scotland. But while Lee came home empty handed, Fiji won Bronze, and Satala could not hide his delight when he spoke to Garrison FM!

In cycling, Scotland's Cpl Duncan Urquhart came a disappointing 26th out of 35 in the 180km Road Race with a time of 4hrs 14 mins. And his fellow countryman Cpl Kevin Sheppard was put in the devastating position of having to withdraw due to injury during the Steeplechase.

In fact, our athletes did not do particularly well. Somewhat sadly, Nigeria's Pte Musu Audu was replaced in the final of the 4 x 400 metres after coming 3rd in the heats, leaving his team to come 5th overall. A cynic might suggest that they would have done better to keep him in. And I must mention Nigeria's Pte John Osazuwa who came 8th in the final of the Hammer Throw with a distance of 62.71. Not a medal, but a personal best.

Three teams of soldiers are taking part in one of the Army’s most challenging adventurous training exercises to date – The Everest West Ridge Expedition.

Over 2,000 people have summated Everest, but only 13 have achieved this via the West Ridge; none of these 13 climbers has been British.

So, whilst an intermediate Development Team and an inexperienced Junior Team attempt separate climbs, 21 highly experienced cold-climate, high altitude mountaineers, will attempt to summit Everest - via the West Ridge.

Before their departure, I went along to Sandhurst where the Teams were going through physiology tests, and to interview several of the members, including their Expedition leader WO2 Dave Bunting.

Powerlifting Championships
APU Secretary SSgt Neil Thomas and Chairman Cpt Nick Tribble with Josette and Police coaches DS Pete Sparks and DS Paul Hooker

Photo by Paul Brown