Training Day - Last Preparations!

It was a crispy, sunny start to the day which saw the teams practice on the host Mining school’s equipment. Each team is tested in unknown conditions, unfamiliar equipment and under the increasing pressure of performing. The competition atmosphere builds as teams showcase their skills to get their best times whilst glimpsing at who is potential competition. Last night, the competition started with welcome drinks and the first opportunity for all the teams to meet for the first time. Overall there are 32 teams competing in the 2017 games – 2 womens, 2 alumni, 15 mens and 13 coed – from 5 countries (USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia and UK). The marquee is filled with free food, drink and most importantly ‘free stash’ from the generous sponsors, ranging from hats, pens and stickers (which are prime stash I’m told). As the week goes on, helmets become adorned with company stickers.

The slight variation in equipment did prove an initial challenge. The mine cart is two tonnes – double the size our teams were used to – so it took a number of runs to get the timing down, the concrete was particularly soft for the hand steel and drilling, the saw had a different blade than in the UK and the track equipment also took some runs to get used to. Liam likes our team’s chances after watching other teams practice – although Montana Tech and WASM wombats were looking like particularly strong competitors. It would appear that other teams have really upped their game since last year – so the competition pressure is building for Saturday! Having experienced the awesome food at Red State BBQ yesterday, we were looking forward to them supplying lunch today, however we received ironic news that the restaurant had unfortunately burned down! Luckily KFC stepped in but it would appear that the UK version is in fact better!

We would like to thank the host, Alex, for the awesome rocking tunes all day and for keeping everyone well fed!

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The evening saw all the teams participating in the traditional ‘Beer chug’, a friendly race where teams have to drink beer/soft drink in the fastest time to win the first gloating honour! After the final race, everyone has to swap their team t-shirts with an opposing team member so at the end of the night everyone is parading in the full variety of schools represented. It is a brilliant idea to integrate everyone and encourage that community feeling that keeps on growing. The CSM drinking t-shirts were the most sought after – so full credit to Dave’s design!