Final day of Toughest Competitor Alive

By Volunteer Nicci Gregg

Thursday was the third and final day of the Toughest Competitor Alive (TCA) event and the turn of the mixed doubles and 4-person teams to show off their various talents and skills in eight different stages of the event which are as follows:

5k Run

100m Sprint

Shotput

100m Swim

Rope Climb

Bench Press

Pull Ups

Obstacle Course

With so many different phases to this event the athletes taking part certainly need to be the totally package with exceptionally diverse physical skills.

If you missed the other days for the TCA event, check out Kat's blog which sets the scene for the first day where she saw the women and 50+ Men compete for the highly sought after TCA title.

The day started with the first three disciples of the event (5k run, 100m sprint and shot put) taking place at the Bangor Sports Complex.  The competitors then travelled by bus to the Bangor Aurora Centre to begin their swimming challenge which is where i joined the festivities.

As I arrived at the Aurora I settled in to watch the competitors doing their warm up for the 100m freestyle swim race.  I sat amongst the competitors friends, family and supporters and got talking to the brother of a member of Team Spain who told me that his "brother has trained seven days a week for a whole year for this competition and is going for the gold".  This Spanish determination became even more clear when the race kicked off as i watched three members of Team Spain win all three phases of the swimming challenge, with Sweden following closely behind.

The spectator area at the Aurora was filled with smiling faces from all over the world and encouraging cheers in all sorts of languages, but when local man Roy Allen stepped up to represent Team Northern Ireland the pool filled with cheers and few 'Keep er lit' chants came his way.

The fastest time in the swimming came from Fernando Felipe of Spain with a time of 1:08:80.

After the swimming competitors, volunteers and spectators all made their way to the sports hall, also within the Aurora complex to watch the rope climb, bench press and pull ups, with the weight lifting competition for the WPFG also taking place in the same hall the atmosphere was electric, not to mention loud.

First up was the rope climb challenge.  Competitors had to climb a 20ft rope which had a disk at the top covered in black soot, the officials check the competitors hands after the climb for black marks to ensure they touched the disk, the fastest time wins.  All competitors took turns on two ropes, cheering each other on when it was not their turn. I watched closely and once again noticed it may be a close call between Spain and Sweden.  There was only one female who attempted the rope climb, and I must say, she put the boys to shame, you can watch my video by clicking here.

On to the bench press and pulls up section of the day.  Competitors took turns at lifting a weight which they had previously set for themselves and for pull ups they had do as many as they could with their chin touching the top bar each time.  Once again, Sweden stood out to me here with Max Norwood showing off his determination and recieving endless cheers from the whole crowd.  Local man Steven Morrison completed a total of 29 pull ups and once again got the biggest cheer of the day.

At 2pm, the athletes, volunteers and spectators made their way back to the Bangor Sports Complex with the final challenge of the day ahead, the obstacle course.  Back at the BSC the spanish team entertained everyone as they had brought their own portable iPod player and played traditional spanish music while they did their warm up, this of course put everyone in a fantastic mood, the sun shinning down on the field didn't hurt either.

The obstacle course consisted of, monkey bars, tyre steps, wall jumps, net runs and many other things (these are not the official terms, but its how I can be describe it).  The course had a gladiator style about and believe me, these athletes certainly are like gladiators.

One by one the competitors took to the final stage of their busy day for their last chance to be named the 'Toughest Competitor Alive'. Here are the results.

My next and final event will be the Ice Hockey on Friday night, stay tuned for my final blog.