Joint UK and Ireland National Mines Rescue Competition Competition took place 30th May, '09 at Cleveland Potash's Boulby Mine.  At 1200m deep, the deepest shafts in Europe. 5 teams took part, with the competition having 3 parts: oral questions & bench test; underground search & rescue; and the surface physical fitness task. All the photos are from the surface physical fitness task. It consisted of filling sandbags and transporting them, along with any other required materials around 80m, through an access pipe, in order to completely stop the water flowing from a "dissused mine adit", for 60 seconds.  As you'll see, the water flows quite heavily. They had to plan and construct, with any method being acceptable.  The best method was to keep the flow going while a wall was constructed and to seal a pipe(s) off. As you can see, the work was very heavy, and the sweat was real.  Although the task was "only" 45 minutes long, some BG4 were down to 50 bar and alarming. Several teams completed the surface task completely as follows: Boulby Mine, UK - 1st Winsford Salt Mine, UK - 2nd Tara Lead Zinc Mine, Ireland - 3rd Maltby Colliery, UK - 4th Lisheen Lead Zinc Mine, Ireland - 5th The overall competition results were as follows: First aid - Boulby, UK Safety - Tara, Ireland Search & Rescue - Boulby, UK Physical Fitness - Boulby, UK Oral & Bench Test - Tara, Ireland Best captain - Boulby, UK