tvAnd then there were still ten of them. After claustrophobic exercises in an oppressive tunnel complex and the first hours of a fifty-kilometer orienteering run, three recruits from ‘Camp Waes’ dropped out in the third episode. Due to blind panic and/or torn ligaments. Meanwhile, one in three participants gave up in the brutal elimination race. “I gave it my all, as long as I can say that, I’m happy.”
She cries with tears. Sobbing and hiccuping, Emma kicks herself. “All young! That’s not possible, is it?!”, she curses in tears. At that moment, the young primary school teacher had been wandering through the forests of the High Fens for five hours with a map, compass and a twenty-kilogram backpack. No camera crew around, only her bodycam records her despair. Emma looks for a checkpoint a few miles from her starting point, but fails to find it. The young woman panics completely and finally decides, at her wits’ end, to return to the point where she left. “I feel so ridiculous,” she sobs. “You practice it for a whole year and now I can’t do it.”
(Read more below the photo)
Emma De Nys, Camp Waes © VRT
Later, Emma – who at that point had barely slept for three days – will find herself again. But she cannot find a first checkpoint. Ultimately, it is instructor Fly who, after a whole day of desperately running around in circles, takes her out of training just before nightfall. “You are so behind that you will never be able to get in on time,” he tells her. At that point, Emma still had at least fifty kilometers to cover in dense terrain. “Sending you into the night knowing you wouldn’t make it would not have been right,” the instructor concludes. Emma is inconsolable, but has to leave the training.
Throbbing ankle
Emma is already the third in the episode at that point. Because kickboxer Youssef was also picked up by a Special Forces truck after a whole day of wandering through the High Fens. He already started the training with an injury to his knee, but at the start of the fifty kilometer orientation tour he also sprained his ankle (torn ligaments, it turned out later). The Antwerp resident is not the best map reader and after a whole day of searching he also failed to find the very first point on the route.
(Read more below the photo)
Youssef Challouki © VRT
It was instructor Adrie who took off Youssef’s name tag and made it clear to him that the training was over for him. “To protect you from yourself, because it is still at least fifty kilometers to walk,” Adrie indicated as he looked at Youssef’s throbbing swollen ankle. The kickboxer was disappointed. “Even if it was another 100 kilometers, I would have crawled,” he said. But a moment later reality set in. “I gave it everything,” the Antwerp resident concluded. “As long as I can say that, I’m happy.”
(Read more below the photo)
Only from Youssef © VRT
Claustrofoob
The night before, the group was also given a tough test. In a tunnel complex fourteen meters underground, the recruits had to find their way to the exit using only a memorized plan and their two hands as a compass. There was not the slightest bright spot in the tunnel. The participants had to crawl through the corridors, which were sometimes only thirty centimeters narrow, completely by touch. A test of courage where it is important not to panic.
(Read more below the photo)
Julien Eggermont, Camp Waes © VRT
Emma, who was the first to leave, ultimately took an hour to complete the 800-meter course. Things went a little smoother for the other recruits, but things go completely wrong for rugby player Julien (23). The broad-shouldered sports management student completely lost his way and panicked in the oppressive darkness. He then shouted ‘No Play’, the pre-arranged code words when the recruits want the mission to be halted immediately. “I was in a panic because I’m claustrophobic,” Julien explained afterwards. And when he sprained his ankle while exiting the tunnel, Fly decided to put an end to Julien’s participation. Before the dreaded orienteering race. “The incident in combination with the fact that you would seriously damage your foot makes me decide to pull the plug,” Fly concluded.
So exit Julien, Emma and Youssef. And so, after three episodes, ten of the fifteen candidates are left. The brutal training is still not halfway done.
Julien Eggermont, Camp Waes © VRT
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2024-01-28 19:58:32
#guys #fits #crying #pure #despair #dropouts #grueling #tests #Kamp #Waes
