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c21st November 2006

A Run-Away Success

The sky was clear, the ground was frozen, the going was tough, yet the cadets from 134 (Bedford) Squadron shone at the Wing Cross-country Championship on Sunday 19th November, and brought back a haul of medals to prove it.

The annual Cross-country competition is held at Bassingbourne Barracks, and sees cadets from all over Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire meet to compete for both individual and team glory. At three-and-a-half miles, the course is similar in length to the Chicksands course where the Bedford cadets had been practising for the last month.

The route features steep hills and knee-deep puddles, and, after three hundred people have run over it, a lot of mud. After every cadet had crossed the finish line, some smiling, and all exhausted, all that was remaining was the final parade, for the medal presentation.

Firstly the individual medals were presented. Cadet Warrant Officer Otulakowski won his Senior Boys race, whilst Corporal Denham achieved a bronze medal in his Youths race. 

The teams performed excellently on the day; the Youth team, comprising of Sergeant Every, Corporal Denham, Corporal Smith, and Cadet Malandra, won back the Youths trophy that Bedford have now secured for three years consecutively. The Senior Boys team, consisting of Cadet Warrant Officer Otulakowski, Sgt Tye, and Cdt Singleton triumphed in their category for the first time in the Squadron’s history. Cadets Cook, Hobden, and Okeeffe, who made up the Junior Girls team, secured a silver team medal.

After the team medals were presented, the tension mounted for the award of the overall trophies. The squadron earned the highly coveted Overall Championship Trophy, won the Overall Boys Trophy, and came third in the Overall Girls competition.

CWO Otulakowski, the team manager on the day, said of the results, “Winning the Overall trophy, as well as many others, is a triumphant conclusion to the year’s competitions, and testament to the superb effort shown by the cadets during training, and their determination on the day.”