Military teams from Barbados, the United States of America, Jamaica, Belize, The Bahamas, Mexico, Peru, Martinique, and the Dominican Republic participated in a physical and mental prowess test during the Women Peace and Security Endurance and Mental Dexterity Challenge, served as part of Exercise TRADEWINDS 2024. Attracting over 50 competitors, teams comprised both men and women.

In the first phase of the exercise, participants started at Long Beach and ran 200 metres, then proceeded uphill, until they finished at the Grenade Range Obstacle staging area where they had to maneuver around five to six obstacles. From there, they completed a mental dexterity test, where they were given a hurricane or disaster scenario and had to answer a number of questions correctly.

Barbados came in first place in the obstacle run, with Jamaica coming second and The Bahamas third; while for the mental challenge the team of the Dominican Republic and Belize came first, followed by the United States and Peru, while Barbados and Belize finished in joint-third place.

According to Lead Planner Lieutenant Coast Guard Karen Carvalho of the Barbados Defence Force, the challenges were introduced as an opportunity for nations to work together. She noted that everything went “very well” and said the event was the first of many initiatives they were trying to introduce.

“In this particular aspect of the competition the teams were not operating as their countries, they had to pull numbers and so, what that did was cause the countries to mix and the purpose behind that was so that we would promote inter-regional operability."

“Because more than likely when we are responding to hurricane/ disaster relief, we work together as [the] Regional Security System and [as] more than one country,” she stressed.

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