The victory ceremony that took place at the Ovcarna pod Pradedem on Friday, 5 February concluded the Czech Army international outdoor polyathlon championship of Winter Survival 2010. One of the teams for the University of Defence occupied the top ranking position of the extremely challenging event.

Eighteen teams competed their skills and abilities of surviving the harsh winter mountains conditions for four days representing the military forces of Belgium, Poland, Slovakia and Czechia. The teams during the many kilometres long movements crossed both natural and artificial obstacles, rescued an "injured" teammate, shot pistols and submachine guns, slept over two nights in the open air and accomplished practical tasks to show their mental strength. Ten of them eventually finished the extreme championship hosted by ACR General Staff and University of Defence.

The winners of the 16th year of Winter Survival are major Ludek Cicmanec, lieutenant Jan Tvrdík and WO Jan Tancibudek for the University of Defence Team I winning 1360 points. The team was eager to win right from the Monday skicross start recording far the best times in each stage finish. However, they had to work really hard in some of the events, such as fixed point or administering first aid.

The runner-ups winning 1134 points are captain Vladimir Michalicka, lance corporal Ivo Vrba and lance corporal Milan Wurst for 73 Tank Battalion team. WO class I Michal Pech, staff sergeant Milan Menzel and sergeant Miroslav Sroler for Ammunition Base team finished third collecting 1108 points.

The trophies to the winning teams were presented by Major General Cestmir Tesarik, the deputy chief of General Staff and ACR inspector, Deputy commander of Joint Forces and AF commander brigadier general Jiri Verner, Support Forces deputy commander brigadier general Radoslav Rotrekl, Military Police deputy commander colonel Milos Ferenc, University of Defence bursar colonel Jiri Durec and Physical Training and Sport Centre director lieutenant colonel Petr Hanak.

Text: Pavel Pazdera, WS 2010 press officer
Photo: Jiří Pařízek