National Holiday Celebrated in Kabul

On the 165th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of
Independence, we commemorated a decisive event in Hungary’s modern history. In addition
to the soldiers of the Force Protection Contingent, also present at the ceremony were the
personnel serving in individual positions as well as the rotations of the HDF Air Mentor
Team, the HDF Air Advisory Team, the HDF National Support Element and the HDF KAIA
FP contingent. Service medals were presented and orders of promotion were read out at the
event, after which Col. László Benda delivered a speech to greet the participants.

With respect to March 15, Hungary’s national holiday, in connection with the 14th anniversary
of Hungary’s membership in NATO, and as a tribute to the birth of the modern-day
Hungarian Defence Forces, two sporting events were organized, namely the Sparta 300 and
the bench press championship.

Altogether 26 boys and four girls entered the Sparta 300 competition, including American,
Polish, Portuguese and Lithuanian competitors besides the eight Hungarians. They started
the contest with 25 pull-ups, which was followed by 50 muscle-ups and 50 push-ups. If
the participants still had stamina and air, they were supposed to continue right away with
doing 50 jumps. After these, in accordance with the rules, they had to lie down and hold 60
kilograms in their hand while performing a so-called “windscreen" movement with their
legs. We could go on and on listing the series of hard exercises – and let us also add that
the competitors had only 19 minutes to execute them. Those completing them within the
time limit were given gift T-shirts emblazoned with “300", and the first three place winners
received certificates.

Altogether 18 personnel entered the bench press championship. Besides the five Hungarians,
British, American, Portuguese and Indian competitors were participating in the event.