Some Windsor police officers are enjoying a sweet victory achieved at a long-running Michigan event.
A group of officers, thrown together as a last-minute entry, came away as upset winners of the tug-of-war competition at the annual Highland Games in Livonia, outside Detroit. For their efforts, the group brought back the Oakman Cup as tug-of-war champions.
Windsor Police Constable Albert Frederick said that it all began when the St. Andrews Society of Detroit, organisers of the Highland Games, were looking for teams for the tug-of-war contest. On a whim, they contacted Windsor police.
"It was about a month ago that they asked us to create a team of ten people, which we did," said Frederick. "Ten people with a maximum weight of 2,500 pounds, so we had to be fairly selective in our selection process, but it was a lot of fun."
The team knew they were headed into a prestigious event, with the Highland Games being in existence since 1850, when Michigan was a young state carved into the western wilderness. Frederick said they relied on the internet to study up on tug-of-war technique, knowing that they were going in as underdogs.
"We met a half hour before the event, and we watched some YouTube videos of professional tug-of-war teams across the world," said Frederick. "We learned from the best, and we just tried to employ those tactics. None of us had ever done this before, but however, it ended up working in our favour."
The Windsor team went through a total of six matches, on their way to winning the tournament, even beating the Society's own team, which had won the competition for a few years running.
The Oakman Cup has been in existence since 1914.