CAMP CASEY, SOUTH KOREA -- Thirty competitors ran, jumped and threw for a chance to take home gold at the Area I track and field meet at Camp Casey's Schoonover Bowl July 21.
The rain that soaked Warrior Country July 19 to 23 abated for the meet and the competitors tested their mettle in 17 events under blue skies.
Among those events were the 1,500-meter run, the 200-meter dash, long jump, the discus and shot put.
Participants ranged widely in age -- from 18 to 46.
"I competed to help morale," said 46-year-old Reginald Sweed, who took a gold in the men's senior 100-meter dash, a silver in the high jump and men's senior 200-meter dash and a bronze in the 110-meter high hurdles.
"So I wanted to go out there and show them that it could be done," said Sweed. He's assigned to the 210th Fires Brigade as sergeant-in-charge of food services.
On Monday, Sweed took his four medals in to work at the Thunder Inn dining facility on Camp Casey and showed them to the soldiers who work there.
"Now all the young Soldiers want to do the next meet so that they can compete against me," Sweed said.
But the track meet wasn't just about building morale, said Sweed, but about fair competition and ensuring everyone did the best they could.
So, he gave pointers to Jephte Guillaume of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, and lost by an inch to the 23-year-old.
One person that needed no pointers was Jason Dubyoski, of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, who walked away with gold in the long jump and the 110-meter high hurdles.
"I love track and have been running competitively for seven years, through high school and college," said Dubyoski.
"I had pretty good competition in the long jump," he said. "I think the guy that took second was only a few inches behind me. In the hurdles I think I was the only person that has had any training in them."
Although he did well on the hurdles, Dubyoski said he wanted to get the hurdles out of the storage shed so he could get in some additional training with them before the September meet.
The hurdler wasn't the only one in his family competing. His wife Kendra laced up her running shoes for the 100-meter dash.
"She did okay even though she has not run track since she was in high school and is three months pregnant," said the soon-to-be dad.
"She was coming out to cheer me on, so I told her she might as well do something," Dubyoski said. "So she decided to run the 100-meters just to see where she was at."
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