The Torch: Another victory for the Royal Military College of Canada

They sure are doing something right (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

RMC proves its military might
SKILLS COMPETITION: Despite the odds, college wins its fourth Sandhurst title in five years

While it may be safe to say that Royal Military College has not been spoiled by athletic success over the years, there is one competition they are proving to all but own.

A team from the college has won the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition, one of the toughest such contests in the world, for the fourth time in five years [emphasis added--story on previous win, 2007, here].

Held earlier this month, the team got the best of the host U. S. Military Academy, Britain's military academy -- after which the competition is named -- and other service academies and universities from around the world.

The gruelling two-day exercise, held this year at West Point, N. Y., includes marksmanship, assault boat competitions, rappelling, orienteering and other team challenges under the umbrella of soldiers' common tasks, all done by competitors in boots, full kit and rifle over a rugged seven-mile course.

Described as the fittest cadets in the college by far, RMC finished the course in four hours, 29 minutes, more than five minutes ahead of the second-place U. S. Military Academy.

The team presented the sword that is the competition's trophy to the college at a parade yesterday. It will hang in a prominent area, near the college colours.

"Because this is a military skills competition, this matters a great deal more than a basketball game, for example. This goes to the core of what we do," said Lt.-Col. Tony O'Keeffe, the college's director of cadets, "and just like in other athletics, we were competing against schools much bigger than we were.

"I looked out from the reviewing stand into a sea of American [camouflage uniforms] and right in the middle of it was this little sliver of green Canadian [uniforms]. Those were the odds we were up against."

The team had been training daily for the competition since returning from Christmas break in January, and knew what they were up against after a team leader had been allowed to scout the course, which changes every year.

"We prepared for everything," stressed fourth-year cadet Eve Boyce, a member of the 15-person team.

"Everything down to the type of knot used in a rope bridge and the distance between them had been practised."

Designed as a thinking and team-building exercise rather than a ruck march up the side of a mountain at double time, the competition challenged the teams to work out solutions to problems on the fly -- for example, manoeuvring across a field of oil drums using boards too short to span the distance, without ever touching the ground.

"It was a tough course," said second-year cadet Charles Gallant. "It's a lot of running, and because of the terrain at West Point, it's like you're running straight uphill for the whole time."

The competition is seen as an extremely big deal by the U. S. military, each arm of which maintains its own service academy. For a Canadian team to once again take bragging rights and the ceremonial sword was a coup.

O'Keeffe gave the credit to the team's training regimen and attitude. The cadets had nothing approaching the training facilities afforded the U. S. schools, most of whose physical education departments dwarf the athletic complexes of top-flight Canadian universities, but they proved to be the fittest and most determined entrants.

"It was their fitness and the training that they put in that made the difference and there was also a Canadian attitude that came into play," he said of the team.

"It's the attitude that we don't need a million-dollar gym. If we have some sandbags and a few weighted cans of water and a dirt track to train on, that's all we need and leave it to us, we'll get it done. They got it done, and we really got a lot out of these young people."

And from a story about preparing for 2008 (did not win):

The Royal Military College (RMC) of Canada’s Sandhurst team is currently hard at work training to defend their title at the Sandhurst military skills competition held May 3, 2008 at the United-States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York.
“The RMC Team has won it all for the last three years, and we are ensuring once again that they have the resources and training time necessary to prepare for this high-level competition,” says Colonel Bernard Ouellette, RMC Deputy Commandant and Director of Cadets. “We are confident that this dedicated team will represent RMC, the only Canadian entry in the competition, very well and make us proud.”

The intent of the award for the Sandhurst military skills competition is to increase military excellence in the field, namely the participants’ ability to move, shoot and communicate, stressing teamwork as a fundamental element in the competition.

The course is designed to put to the test the limits of human endurance and skill, both mental and physical, through a 12 km course hardened with obstacles, through the Adirondack Mountains. Theses obstacles consist of a river crossing, assault boat movement, marksmanship, 9.5’ wall, Commandant’s challenge, and more. Each team is composed of fifteen members, nine members running the competition including one woman, and six alternate members.

In 2007, RMC represented the only Canadian team entry, and competed against 38 other teams, including 35 from the United-States, two from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom, and, for the first time ever, a team from the National Military Academy of Afghanistan [emphasis added--Afghans!].

“We were the best overall last year, due to our speed, and our dedication,” states Officer Cadet Connor Ryan, a fourth-year student from Macklin, Saskatchewan, who has won the competition for the last three years and is the Team Captain of the 2008 edition. “I look forward to competing again with some returning members and some newcomers, which will ensure the continuity of our excellent training at RMC.”..