For the past two days, we've been reporting on the Wonder Women competition hosted by the Belize Coast Guard.
It features five teams of women security officers from the BDF, the Police and the Coast Guard. Today, after two days of hellish competition, they went into the final and most gruelling day which started with an 8 mile march with combat equipment along the Burrell Boom Road, followed by a live firing competition at the Hattieville Range, and finally, back to the coast guard compound for the Crucible, a crazy cross fit competition.
We caught them in the jaws of that crucible today - Jules Vasquez reports:
Jules Vasquez- Reporting
Phenomenal feats of strength, here by the BDF team, and prowess, displayed here by the Coast Guard team, grit from the police and teamwork by the Guardsmen- yes, these women are still called guardsmen. They are called wonder women- for good reason- because their feats, their dauntlessness can seem super heroic. And while the flowery language is all fine and good, out there on the field it's blood, sweat and tears. And at the end of it today, the coast guard alpha team won.
Diana Velasquez- Coast Guard Team Alpha
"As a team captain you have to have patience to deal with your team members. And I thank God, in the first place, to have given me that patience to deal with them and support them, cheer them up and help them whenever they are weak, help them with their loads and cheer them up. Even though you are working more sometimes, you still have to cheer them up and push with them. So, I am just proud of my team members. All of them did an excellent job. They helped when they could and they kept a positive mind. When you feel like crying sometimes you break down and get demoralized but then they pick up their moral and they go out again, and we push on strong and we finish strong. I think we just worked together as a team. We didn't try to complain about the weakness of the other members and we just tried to say, 'Okay, you can be weak in this and I am strong in that. But you can be strong in the other one and I can be weak. So, we just try to work with each other and that makes a difference when you got a good team work, you get strong because the weak become strong."
And with this hard earned victory, these women also get bragging rights.
Diana Velasquez- Coast Guard Team Alpha
"As females I can say, most of us being females and doing this event are stronger than some of the males. Because there is the best warrior that is the male version of this and many males don't even want to take the initiative to get the training, worse doing the event itself. Doing this as a female can prove to many of the men that don't believe in us as females that we are stronger than majority of them."
And for those teams that didn't excel - like the first time police team, there are lessons in here.
CPL. Jane Usher- Police Team
"It was tough. The events are pretty challenging and with limited training it takes a toll on the body. We couldn't run through the events like the other girls but we worked together to get through. We've had a commitment from the commissioner that we have done well with our limited training and that he will support us next year. The girls are excited because they know that they pushed their bodies through to finishing and I am very proud of all of them for pushing their bodies to the limits for the past three days and so we are ready to come back and try better."
It's an annual event - and the Coast Guard team has racked up the most victories.
