World News for Students of English

10-02-2015 15:00

About 5,000 runners braved bitter cold, mud, fire and exhaustion in the annual Tough Guy Event, AKA the hardest obstacle course in the world.

Competitors battled through on Sunday in the Midlands to claim the Tough Guy title.

As gruelling as it looks, some entrants managed to style it out, with many crossing the starting line in fancy dress.

Waiting for them along the eight-mile course were huge wooden barricades, ropewalks, deep and icy water, fire barriers and several metres spent face down in thick mud, squirming under strings of barbed wire.

First held in 1987, the event was started by a former soldier who was inspired by army assault courses endured by the military.

Over the years, the well and truly unforgiving marathon has attracted huge numbers of masochists from around the world, and this year 37 countries were represented.

The winner was Britain Jonathan Albon who completed the torture course in 1 hour 36 minutes and 47 seconds.

Difficult words:

brave (to suffer through something very hard)

exhaustion (being very tired)

annual (happening every year)

AKA (also known as)

obstacle (something which blocks your way)

course a (race)

gruelling (hard)

entrant (a person who takes part in something)

fancy (cool, unusual)

huge (very big)

squirm (to crawl low to the ground)

barbed wire (wire with sharp points)

former (past)

assault course (a course for training soldiers)

endure (to suffer through something)

well and truly (completely)

masochist (a person who likes to be hurt).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com