By Zhao Zhiguo, Han Cheng and Li Kang
KORLA, Aug.15 (ChinaMil) -- The final relay race of maintenance platoons for the "Gunsmith Master" competition in the International Army Games (IAG) 2019 was held in Korla, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Wednesday morning.
The "Gunsmith Master" competition consists of five races including the Howitzer maintenance race, anti-aircraft gun maintenance race, rocket artillery maintenance race, light weapons maintenance race and relay race of maintenance platoons.
Different from the first four single races, the relay race of maintenance platoons requires 14 team members to complete the disassembly of light weapons, anti-aircraft guns, Howitzers, rocket artilleries, and then assemble and test such weapons in the same order. The race aims to test the integrated individual capabilities on coordination, organization and command. It can be said that it is a comprehensive competition of the previous races.
Participating teams, including China, Armenia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan, each sending 14 members, competed in three groups. The Chinese and Russian teams started the race first. Uzbekistan and Armenia, and Kazakhstan and Iran were in the second and third groups respectively.
After fierce competition, the Chinese team formed by members from a division under the Xinjiang Military Command won first place with a total time of 35' 01''. At this point, all events of the "Gunsmith Master" competition have ended. The Chinese teams won all the five races of the contest, as well as the group champion.
The results of the combined race of the "Clear Sky" competition were announced on the same morning. The Chinese team with members from a division under the Xinjiang Military Command won first place with a total time of 44' 55''. At this point, the "Clear Sky" competition has also ended. The Chinese team won first places in the mastery, interaction and combined races of the competition , and again the group champion. The teams from Russian and Uzbekistan won second and third places respectively.
The "Clear Sky" contest consists of the mastery, interaction and combined races. Seven countries including China, Belarus, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Venezuela participated in the competition. During the competition, the team members used wheeled armored vehicles, man-portable air defense systems, antiaircraft machine guns, and automatic rifles. Except for Russia's use of its own equipment and ammunition, the equipment and ammunition used by all other participating countries were provided by the Chinese side.
