Highlanders race over hills and dales
TWO teams of Highlanders could have wins by days’ end.
By the time you read this, members of the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, known as The Highlanders, will be slogging it out in the annual Twin Peaks military endurance race.
Eight teammates and one individual racer from the Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire will be among more than 100 military men and women who will tackle the sodden slopes of Swampy Summit and Flagstaff twice today.
The Highlanders Royal Regiment of Scotland Captain M. L. Rupasinha said the nine members of the battalion who would compete in the 26km race were among the few who had not been deployed on teambuilding missions in Iraq and the Ukraine.
He had been struck by the similarities between Dunedin and Scotland, from the obvious ones like place names and architecture, to the team’s names.
‘‘We are really the Highlanders; they are just a rugby team,’’ he joked.
Team member Corporal M. Rumble said he found out about the race about three weeks ago and since then the team had been racing over the Yorkshire Dales with full kit in preparation.
He did not ‘‘do nerves’’ and welcomed the stormy conditions so he did not ‘‘melt in the heat’’.
Event planner Staff Sergeant Gareth Manson said 20 New Zealand teams with personnel from the navy, air force and army had also entered.
Each entrant would carry about 15kg of kit and weapons during the race.
People should not be alarmed if they saw armed soldiers in the area, he said.
Last year an entrant crossed the line in 3hr 38min.
After the race, the military Highlanders would travel to Wanaka for a holiday before returning to the United Kingdom.
margot.taylor@odt.co.nz