From mud to communication: Izvestia journalist passed the Winners' tests
A 300 kg log, a giant steel coil, a firing line, and a pool of mud at a temperature of +1 are just a few of the obstacles that the participants of REN TV's new large—scale super-extreme project "Winners" have passed. After a rigorous selection, 140 people from all over Russia were allowed to join the band. Doctors, firefighters, emergency workers, and the military are all ordinary people who have one thing in common: there is a place for heroic deeds in their lives every day. The contestants had to test not only their own physical fitness, but also their ability to work in a team: they couldn't cope with the challenges alone. The Izvestia correspondent decided to personally check how impossible this mission is.
Brutality on the verge of the possible
The vast majority of sports TV programs are filmed in the pavilion, where conditions for participants are equalized and the weather does not interfere. The creators of the REN TV project "Winners" decided that the extreme should not be fake. Therefore, in the Patriot Park near Moscow, next to tanks, helicopters and a guerrilla village, they built several difficult obstacle courses designed for special forces.
— Our task was to make the most brutal project. All tests were tested by a group of professional stuntmen. They talked about which stages required more security: where to hang the net, where to round the corners. Some obstacles turned out to be too difficult when they were tested in nature, while others, on the contrary, had to be improved. In some places, ditches should be made wider, and in others, holes should be dug deeper," Andrei Andreev, the project's production designer, told Izvestia.
A group of journalists and bloggers experienced one of the stripes for themselves. It can only be completed by a team. There are four people in each group, one of them is a mentor. At the start, the journalists, unlike the project participants, were given protective suits and shoe covers, which are mandatory equipment, because in a minute any shoes will sink into the mud. And there was plenty of it on the strip. And — let's go!
Power basketball and iron coils
The obstacle course consists of ten parts, each requiring extreme physical and mental exertion. The first test is a three—meter steel coil. It must be rolled forward several meters as quickly as possible. Only she weighs more than one hundred kilograms, and there is slippery mud under her feet. Two participants go through this stage while the other half of the team is waiting for them at the wall. High stature and remarkable strength are needed here.
There were two strong and tall members in our team, which compensated for my lack of height and the necessary physical strength. However, we were able to roll the coil only to the middle — it rained, the soil was scattered. It's just like in life: some people push the coil over a dry area, others can get into a quagmire immediately after the starting whistle.
Then the participants need to climb onto the projectile and from there move to the first wall. There are big balls there, four for each team. The task is to get into a square basket located a few meters from the wall. It's a kind of basketball, but each ball weighs 10 kg, and there's almost no strength left after the reel. Once again, power and precision are required.
The team quickly assigns "snipers". Every mistake can be worth winning seconds. The first ball goes "into the milk" — a miss. You need to calculate the force of the impact and the trajectory of the fall. You can intentionally throw the ball into the ground so that it bounces, but there is dirt all around: if it flies in the other direction, the team will lose its advantage. It is better to aim directly at the basket and, if possible, keep the shoulder joint intact. The more balls there are in the basket, the fewer targets you will have to shoot at the firing line.
In everyday life, I bench press a barbell weighing 58 kg, which, with my weight of 52 kg, is equivalent to the standard of a master of sports, but this force was not enough for me to complete the task.
Logging under the firing line
We run to the next stage — a giant log. And not every adult man will be able to embrace him. "What should I do with him?" is throbbing in my head.
— Lift it up and roll it over the wall! Faster! — the instructor's military voice sounds.
And again, a challenge for the strong and tall. In dry form, the log weighs 250 kg, but it has accumulated autumn moisture, and it takes all 300 to lift. The strongest of us takes the central position, the rest — on both sides of the trunk. The first pull was unsuccessful: the wood is too heavy and smooth. I can feel my fingers slipping and my nails bending in a futile attempt to hold on to the projectile.
"One more time!" Regrouped! The girls go ahead, the men take the main weight. We act on command, we don't waste our strength! — our captain is in command.
There is! The log gives way and slowly comes off the pedestal. In small runs, we reach the middle of the trunk. My forearms clog with tension, and my palms slide over the surface. We need to throw it on the wall. But how to push 300 kg?
"On my command!" On the count of three! One, two... come on! With a deafening crash, the tree falls against the wall. Now we have to crawl on it. The suits are wet, the hands are shaking from overexertion, there are five slippery meters ahead on a log, and a deep ditch under it.
While I was trying not to fall off the projectile, my teammates were pushing me up. Foot rest, hand rest — the muscles are strained to the limit. You have to crawl higher and higher until your frozen fingers touch the edge of the log. Now I would like to stretch my body and not fall from a four-meter height.
The participants do not have safety ropes. Of course, mats and nets protect them from serious injuries, but sprains, dislocations and bruises are easier to get.
After such a march, the freshest of the contestants stand on the firing line. And that's where the balls thrown into the basket will come in handy: the more successful attempts, the fewer targets they need to hit. We shoot with an airsoft gun. Other shots are being fired nearby, and drones are taking off.
- what is it? I ask, trying to shout over the new volley.
"It's for the atmosphere," the instructor replies, breaking into a gap—toothed smile.
I remember that the project's production designer, Andrey Andreev, warned me about pyrotechnics. This should add entertainment to the screen and confuse the participants.
After catching our breath, we run to the next obstacle — it's the wall again. But you won't be able to climb it on your own. The girls are thrown first — the men interlace their arms in an improvised springboard. I place a rough army boot on the back of someone's hand and take off on command, clinging to the edge of the wall. I roll over my other leg and help the others climb in.
Mud pool in the autumn cold
Each test proves one thing: the body must be physically fit, versatile, resilient, and able to respond instantly to new challenges.
The last obstacle ahead is a mud pool with a rope net stretched over it. It touches the water slightly somewhere, and in some places it is immersed in it. You can't climb from above — only under it.
The temperature is plus one degree. To get to the grid itself, you have to walk a few meters on the water. The first step — and the icy liquid instantly fills the shoes. Shoes get stuck in clay soil, the sole slips. I'm falling. In order not to end up with your head in the mud, you have to cling to the ropes of the net. In tired, exhausted hands, they look like steel bars. One option is to forget about the cold and slide through the mud.
The final line is a one—and-a-half-meter wooden barrier separating the participants from the finish line. But you can't crawl under it, just climb over. And to do this, the exhausted and soaked body, which has become even heavier, has to be lifted and thrown again.
This strip is the best illustration of the fact that you can move mountains with a team, but you can't walk five meters alone, no matter how versatile and prepared you are.
— All participants, without exception — police officers, paramedics, doctors, firefighters, emergency workers, bodyguards — are heroes in everyday life. Here they are tested in the harshest conditions, and after filming they return to work and save our lives there every day: they extinguish fires, operate, get children out of the gorges. This is their daily routine. And they are already winners there," Sergei Badyuk, the project's lead, a veteran of the special forces, admitted to Izvestia.
I'm a winner now too. We are the winners. Although our streak wasn't the most difficult, it was just a warm-up for the participants of the show. And how they will pass the steep routes, you can see with your own eyes on the air of REN TV.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
