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May 22 - Gibraltar Team Set For UK Field Gun Run

fieldgunTraining has been intense over the last couple of months for the team selected to take part in this year’s Annual Field Gun Run in Portsmouth.  The team will fly out to the UK on Friday and will have a week on the track in preparation for the main event which starts on 31st May.

The Field Gun Run is a tribute to the Royal Navy’s involvement in the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War in 1900 when guns from HMS Powerful were hauled by the ship’s Naval Brigade to defend the town against the Boer attack. The Gun Run is a replica of some of the obstacles they would have encountered and is divided into three sections: the run out, the run back and the run home.

Although previously a Naval tradition, it is now a tri-service event and taking part this year are service personnel from the Navy, RAF and Army from both the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and other Regiments. Field Gun Officer Lt Cdr Rob Bullock said: “The Gun Run has now spread into much more of a tri-service multi-national interest and we are the only overseas territory competing this year which helps to keep Gibraltar in the public mind.”

WO2 Kenny Alvarez is this year’s Number One Trainer and he has been competing in the Annual Field Gun Run for the past 16 years.

“I absolutely love it, for the last three to four years I have been saying I won’t do it again as it hurts too much, but the fact is it would hurt much more if I didn’t do it,” he said.

Kenny’s enthusiasm and determination have certainly rubbed off on his team members. Spr Ross Mundy from 25 Field Squadron Royal Engineers said “I’m really enjoying it; I want to do it again as soon as we have finished this one.”

The training itself is notoriously arduous and Chief Matthew Docherty knew he would need to get fit if he was to participate in this year’s run so straight after Christmas he embarked on a training regime that has seen him lose over 16 kg and tone up in time for their departure to HMS Collingwood on Friday.

The event attracts around 20,000 spectators and there will be around 20 teams competing for the much-coveted Trophy Prize.