Photos of the day: PLA Cadets in West Point's Sandhurst competition

West Point holds Sandhurst skills competition

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2012 9:05:29 EDT

WEST POINT, N.Y. — More than 400 cadets from around the world are competing at the U.S. Military Academy in the annual Sandhurst Military Skills Competition.
Sandhurst teams will compete in 11 events Saturday ranging from marksmanship to water crossings. Each team consists of eight men and one woman.
The annual Sandhurst competition began in 1967 and is named for Britain’s Royal Military Academy. Institutions fielding teams this year include West Point, Sandhurst, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, Canada’s Royal Military College, Afghanistan’s National Military Academy and the Spanish Military Academy.
The competition is open to spectators.

Cadets of PLA UST participate in ‘Sandhurst Competition’
( Source: PLA Daily  )         2012-May-15 17:05

　 　The “Sandhurst Competition” for international military academies was held in late April in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on the riverside of the Hudson River in New York, the USA.

　　As the only representative team of the Chinese military academies participating in the competition for the first time, the cadets of the University of Science and Technology (UST) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stood out among the 55 teams after two days of fierce competition, and mounted upon the podium of team award, claiming the champion in two individual events and a second prize in one individual event as well as the honor of Sandhurst armband. While shaking hands with Hou Peng, leader of the Chinese team, Lt. Gen. David Huntoon, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, said: “The Chinese team is fantastic!”

　 　The “Sandhurst Competition” began in 1967 when the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) donated a British officer's saber to the U.S. Military Academy, hoping the West Point could give it to the cadet as a military contest prize. This competition has later developed into a well-known international competition of military skills for military academies. The contents of this year's “Sandhurst Competition” involved regular training courses for the cadets of the U.S. military academies, which are centered mainly on the ten events such as boat maneuvering, obstacle overcoming, rappelling, medical care of the wounded on the battlefield, marksmanship, weapon handling, oriented cross-country racing, decision-making capacity challenge, rope bridge and total turnaround time, and set to compete in the physical, tactical and intellectual confrontations as well as team cooperation and decision-making capability.

　　By Ma Shengwei, Yang Daichen and Zhou Yi