TOUGH terrain, gruelling tests and extreme fatigue faced more than 90 teams battling to complete this year’s Exercise Cambrian Patrol, in mid-Wales. Just four coveted gold medals were issued at the end of the challenge, which is commonly accepted as one of the toughest patrolling exercises a modern soldier can face.

Once again, soldiers were pushed to their limits on the annual event staged in the Welsh mountains. As part of an eight-man team, each soldier has to march a distance of 55kilometres, carrying full personal kit and additional supplies, weighing up to 60lbs. The two-day mission presents realistic scenarios, with teams encountering advancing enemy patrols.

The challenge was first set more than 40 years ago, by a group of Welsh TA soldiers who designed the training event that features long-distance marching over the Cambrian Mountains, culminating in a shooting match on the Sennybridge training area. Since then, the exercise has been rigorously updated to meet the challenges faced by modern soldiers.

Huntingdon soldier Bombardier Dougie Scott, 26, was part of the 14 Regiment’s Royal Artillery team, which achieved one of this year’s four prestigious gold medals.

Talking at the start line, Dougie, who was tackling the event for the first time, said: "We’ve been hill walking in Devon to get us used to carrying the weight and to get some miles on our legs. We’ve had a team in the patrol for the last two or three years and the best they have done is silver, so we know it’s quite extreme. This year, we have a new commanding officer who wants us to go for the gold."

Reporting to an assembly area on the edge of the Sennybridge ranges, the soldiers’ kit and equipment is thoroughly checked to ensure the correct items have been brought and that illegal articles have not been included.

Patrol commanders receive their orders on the exercise for briefing to their teams and are then ferried by van to a drop-off point, to embark on the 48-hour patrol.

They have to navigate through the night and link up with friendly agents en-route, and face a number of gruelling tasks along the way, including defensive shooting while under attack, accurate observation and reconnaissance of enemy forces and a deep river crossing with full kit, without access to boats.

Brigadier Iain Cholerton, Commander of the Army’s 160 (Wales) Brigade, who is responsible for running the exercise, said despite very kind weather the patrol was as testing as ever.

He said: "There were some very impressive performances but as always those who did well were well-led, well-prepared and physically and mentally robust.

"The exercise remains a great challenge and I congratulate all those who took part and encourage all those who did not do as well as they had hoped, or who have yet to enter, to start preparing for next year now."

This year’s event, which ran from October 27 to November 5, attracted 95 teams from the British regular and Territorial Army and Royal Air Force. Foreign army teams from Canada, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, India, France and the Czech Republic also took part. Successful teams are awarded a coveted gold, silver or bronze medal, or certificate of merit, depending on the number of points they have earned throughout.

This year, a total of 64 teams completed the exercise. As well as the four gold medals awarded, there were 19 silvers, 26 bronzes and 15 certificates of merit.