Fulda Challenge 2006

The 2006 UK Fulda Challenge team has been chosen following the European Selection Event that took place in Sulden, South Tyrol/Italy.

The two-person team – Martin Yardley, a Royal Marine physical training instructor from Portsmouth and Kate Balchin, a Metropolitan police officer from Bagshot in Surrey – will represent the UK in the sixth Fulda Challenge.

Nine teams from around the world will compete in next year’s event, including Canada, Poland, Belgium, Austria, The Netherlands and Germany. The competition will take place from 28 January to 7 February 2006. The teams will undertake a series of demanding activities such as ice climbing, cross-country skiing, mountain bike racing, chasm crossing, snowshoe trekking and much more.

“I am very, very pleased,” commented Martin Yardly continuing, “I feel honoured to have made it through because the competition was so close. I have trained really hard for this and I feel like I deserve it. I am really looking forward to competing with Kate – we will make a strong team and we’ll work well together.

“I’m in Canada over Christmas and I plan to do some training in Norway if I can. I’m also going to do some skidpan training in preparation for driving on ice.”

Fulda UK’s brand manager Marcus White added: “I am proud of all ten UK athletes. The overall scores were very close and it was the final event that decided the 2006 team. Every one of them completed each event and that is a great achievement in itself.

“At this stage it is difficult to lose eight competitors but I have no doubts that we have the strongest team to take to Canada. After the unfortunate events in the 2005 challenge earlier this year, Fulda UK is keeping its fingers crossed that 2006 will bring victory for the UK.”