The Princess Royal Tug of War Trophy has been a prestigious military competition that was resurrected this year for the first time in over 10 years being on ‘pause’.
There were over 100 athletes on the rope across a number of weight categories drawn from a variety of Army units, such as Royal Horse Artillery (RHA), Royal Signals (Sigs), Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), the Mercian Regiment, and RAF Cosford and the RAF Air Command squads. Amongst our Army colleagues, there were a number of international pullers as well as fair sprinkling of their various representatives squads.
The RAF in comparison was a mixture of the Inter Services squad from this year, trainees from Cosford and novices from BZN who touched the rope for the first time the afternoon before the event and had never pulled in a competition! We were therefore entering without high hopes of success….
However the results suggested otherwise:
640kg Mens – Bronze
600kg Mixed 4×4 – Silver and 5th
600kg Mens – Gold
560kg Womens – Gold
With Braemar on the horizon, and a tour to USA in Oct, this is playing out to be one of the RAF’s most successful outdoor seasons with growth at grass roots and a number of athletes competing at national or near national level, Inter-Service champs at 640kg and numerous Silvers across the season.
A huge congratulations from the RAF Sports Federation to everyone that was involved.
