INVICTUS GAMES 2017

UK team win first medals of the Invictus Games at the Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge

The Invictus Games kicked off September 23 in Toronto – the brainchild of Prince Harry after a visit to America’s Warrior Games in 2013, this adaptive sport competition helps service personnel as well as veterans in overcoming their physical or mental health illness or injury. This year, the games hosted 550 service members from 17 countries, competing in 12 different sports ranging from cycling to wheelchair rugby and athletics.

As the presenting partner of the Invictus Games for the third time, there is also a Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge, which has become the traditional curtain raiser to the Games. There are two different courses: the Jaguar course, which is all about speed and precision and the Land Rover course, featuring a number of different obstacles.

Points are awarded for the ability to complete the course quickly, but more importantly cleanly as fouls, including taking out an obstacle with your Land Rover, deduct points from the team’s total score.

This year two participants from Netherlands took home the gold medal as they displayed the best teamwork, cohesion and communication, but Team UK did pick up their first medals of the 2017 Invictus Games at this challenge.

Prince Harry awarded Army Sergeant Gareth Paterson and former RAF Sergeant Olaf Jones their silver medals, the first time Team UK have medalled in this motorsport event, but it was a tight final, with Denmark coming in third.

The Prince later joined the small children’s track and sat alongside Daimy Gommers, five, daughter of Paul Gompers, who competed in archery for the Netherlands’ Invictus Team. He cheered and whooped pretending to be dazzled by the speed of her driving as she steered her way through the course in front of the world’s media – turn to page 106 to see the young fan taking him for a spin.