Daredevil military athletes take to the ice track at the Inter Services in Lillehammer
The Inter Services Ice Sports Championships have concluded in Lillehammer after two days of thrilling and intense competition on the famous Olympic ice track.
The venue of the 1994 Winter Olympics, athletes from across the UK Armed Forces descended on Lillehammer for two days of competition in luge, skeleton and two-man bobsleigh.
It is one of the only sporting competitions on the forces sporting calendar where novice athletes get to compete alongside Olympic-level athletes.
The luge competition is one of the most technical of the three disciplines on show at these championships.
The men's competition was won by the Royal Air Force's Sergeant John Paul Kibble, who won with a total time of 1:48.359.
He said: "I'm absolutely ecstatic, you know, this is a notoriously technical track and it's been a tough two weeks.
"But we came together as a team on race day, and the staff and the coaches has really helped me get along and put down some really solid times.
"It's my third one in a row, and I really wanted to get that, so I'm over the moon."
The Army's Captain Lucy Wyatt took gold in the women's luge, winning her second Inter Services title with a total time of 1:52.799.
She said: "I'm pretty excited, this is two years in a row that I've won the ladies championship, so it was really, really good to retain the title this year."
The men's skeleton event was a tight race between the Army's Arran Holmes and the RAF's Rhys Thornbury.
Thornbury, a 2018 Olympian, pipped Holmes to the post to take the gold medal after four runs.
RAF Skeleton's and South African international Fight Lieutenant Nicole Burger beat the Royal Navy's Rachel White to win the gold in the women's skeleton.
Burger had opted out of competing at the World Championships in Lake Placid, due to lack of funding, to compete at the Inter Services Championships in Lillehammer.
She is also bidding for a place at next year's Milano-Cortina Olympics, where she hopes to become the first South African to compete in skeleton at the games.
Power, precision and preparation! 🛷💨
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A lot of hard work goes into making sure these military bobsledders are ready to compete at the highest levels.
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She said: "It was great, it's my first Inter Services win so it's a great feeling.
"It's an amazing track, the track crew keep the track really well presented and it's not just an easy track for people to get on, it's very technical so for the novice athletes it's really testing their abilities on the sleds, so it's a really good track for everyone."
Bobsleigh is among the UK Armed Forces' most successful sports, with many athletes who've gone on to compete at the elite level starting out at the Inter Services at the very beginning of their careers.
The Army's Private Kelsea Montgomery and Corporal Kewe King won the title in the women's competition with a total time of 3:26.88.
Double Olympian Lance Corporal Nick Gleeson and his brakeman Rifleman Tom Harris stormed to the gold medal in the men's bobsleigh event, sealing Gleeson's third straight Inter Services win.
He said: "Yeah, I'm absolutely ecstatic. It's the highlight of my season, to be honest, even though we get off competing for Great Britain, coming back to the Inter Services is always a good laugh.
"It's fantastic seeing the novices coming through, everyone going from flash to bang pretty much and, on the last day, everyone has been going 100% off the hill, it's a really good atmosphere."
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