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RAF Sport Review of the year 2025 2
Royal Air Force News Friday, December 26, 2025 P23
● Also pages 24-25
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HAVING CALLED for Service heads THERE WAS late Challenge Cup 1 of departments to ‘Do more for sport’ 1 woe as the senior men’s rugby
in his annual ‘State of the Nation’ interview with RAF News, Director of RAF Sport Air Cdre Rich Fogden’s words were put into action in the opening month of the year and beyond. THERE WAS huge RAF rugby 2 league news as women’s team
captain AS1(T) Grace Burnett signed for RFL Women’s Super League side Huddersfield Giants. The signing meant Burnett traded one WSL side for another as she moved from Warrington Wolves, who she played for 13 times, scoring once in the 2024 season.
THERE WAS Stateside success for 3 service BMX star Cpl Chris Taylor, who snatched third place on his USA race debut at the Grand National Finals in Tulsa. Competing in the ‘Biggest BMX race on Earth’, at the SageNet Expo Centre, he blasted his way to the podium after a nerves-of-steel break on the final corner of the race.
league stars fell to the Army 22-16. The 2024 IS champions led for 70 minutes of the rescheduled clash at Aldershot Garrison Stadium.
THE SEVENTH Invictus 2 tournament and the first-ever
FLT LT Nicole Burger secured THERE WAS double Six Nations 1 qualification for the IBSF skeleton 1 try glory for RAF rugby stars Flt Lt
World Cup in 2026, before heading off for IS duty in Lillehammer as women’s captain. The RAF and South African ice sports star competed in Winterberg, St. Moritz and Lillehammer.
THE RAF-led Invictus GB team 2 produced an incredible second place
winter/summer games in the event’s history saw three RAF personnel lead the GB team in Vancouver. Team captain Cpl Stephen Hooper (Ret’d) and vice-captains Flt Lt Gemma Barnes (Ret’d) and Sqn Ldr Neil Thomas were at the helm.
with a medal haul of 38 in the Vancouver Whistler hosted games. Rowing and swimming successes saw Team UK produce the most podium finishes.
AFTER A decade of UKAFFC 3 dominance, the team’s head coach
WAS the end of an era for RAF 3 IT Under-23s football as Sgt Danny
Cpl Daryl White resigns from the post following another successful Kentish Cup campaign. White guided the team to a fifth Kentish Cup win in six tournaments in Stroe, Holland, beating France 1-0 and Holland 2-1.
Bartley oversaw his last game with a 3-1 defeat to the Inter-Services winning Army. He said: “It’s been an absolute pleasure managing the team for the past four seasons.”
THE SERVICE’S equestrians INTER-SERVICE preparations 4 produced a fabulous second place 4 began on the Austrian slopes for at the London International Horse Show,
with 19 RAF individual wins and team victories in men’s ski and women’s snowboarding. Fg Off Ollie Weeks took the men’s individual title and AS1 Georgina Davis the women’s ski title, while women’s snowboard captain Cpl Natalie Fields also took top spot.
Exercise Alpine Challenge 25, which would see ski, snowboard and telemark stars get a chance to fight for InterService places, while novice personnel got a taster of the competition for the first time.
Olympia. The dynamic duo of Flt Lt Michelle Randall and WO Keeley Martin jumped superbly, with Randall coming second. Chair of RAF showjumping Wg Cdr Haley Norris said: “Having two RAF riders in the final was an incredibly proud moment.”
WAS an alpine gold rush 4 THERE at the Inter-Services in Meribel
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Amy Cokayne and Flt Lt Sarah Bonar, as England and Scotland won their opening clashes. Hooker Cokayne got England’s Women’s Six Nations defence off to a great start with a poacher’s try in a 38-5 bonus point victory over Italy in York, while Bonar’s Scotland overcame Wales 24-21 in Edinburgh, with the aviator touching down. GEORGIA CALLAWAY 2 AS1 stormed to first place in the Ladies
Lift-Off powerlifting event at RAF Cosford.
WAS a match to remember as 3 IT the RAF Mustangs stormed to a
64-6 win over the Royal Navy to kick off the 2025 Inter-Services championship in style. The Mustangs would go on to beat the Army Jackals 20-14 to take the championship title for the second time, in November. A 3-0 AWAY defeat at the hands of 4 the Royal Navy spelled the end of the
road for the Service senior men’s footballers' Inter-Service championship hopes. wins saw the 5 BACK-TO-BACK SRT(W) women’s footballers make it
five IS championship title wins in a row. Stand-in manager FS Michelle Perkins saw her charges secure a 1-0 win in Portsmouth, to kickstart their title charge, then finish things with a 4-3 win over the Army.
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