Episode 11 Ultimate Sports Day

I applied to be on USD

because it sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

It was exciting, nerve-racking and tiring

but I would happily do it all over again.

Even if you don't think you're going to get there, just go for it,

do your best and hopefully you'll come out on top.

The whole experience was just great. It's not that hard to try something new

if you just put enough effort into it.

It's just been the best thing ever.

For the last two months, the UK's finest young athletes

have battled it out to be crowned Ultimate Sports Day Champions.

With exclusive, behind the scenes footage, and all the bits we didn't dare show you,

this is Ultimate Sports Day Extra Time.

It all began with the arrival of some of the best young athletes

from the four corners of the UK at their hostel in Scotland.

After grabbing a bunk and a bite to eat, there was time to relax

and check out the competition.

But this was the quiet before the storm.

The next 24 hours would be brutal.

75 hopefuls would be put through a gruelling set of physical tests.

Their goal to win one of the four places available

on each of the four teams -

-Hi, I'm Leo.

-Hi, I'm Ellen.

-My name is Morgan.

-I'm here to win for England.

-I'm here to beat the English.

-Come on, Wales!

The tests were devised by top sports trainer Professor Greg Whyte.

He guided David Walliams in his swim of the River Thames for Sport Relief,

so he really knew how to measure the core fitness of the young athletes.

The talent on show is exceptional.

Hands on shoulders, give us hands on shoulders.

Throughout the day, the athletes underwent seven tests,

including rowing, sit ups and bleep tests.

But only the best 32 could go through to the next round.

With mentors Sinead, Christian, Barry and Dean watching closely

for potential team members,

the young athletes pushed it to the limits.

-Oh, it's exhausting.

-It's very tiring.

Especially Jake.

I was running, I was running and I was so exhausted.

Everything just went heavy and I tried to give one more run

but I just couldn't, so I just dropped.

-That was nearly the final straw for Jake.

-Take a deep breath in.

By the end of an exhausting day, the athletes were ready for their beds.

We've got eliminations tomorrow. Really nervous about that.

I really don't want to go home. I want to stay to the end and win.

The next day, the hopefuls anxiously lined up

to find out if they've done enough to make the cut.

Unfortunately, I have some not great news.

We were just waiting and waiting to see if we were going to be picked to go through.

You're going to be stuck with me for another week!

It was such a relief when she told us we were.

You guys made it.

You're the team.

I was over the moon. I really wasn't expecting it.

You're here for the rest of the week! Come on!

What they're now left with is a group

of highly accomplished, physical athletes.

The key issue now is what is their skill like,

what is their attitude like,

and are they going to be the right person for their USD team?

Come on, let's go!

For a place in their national squads, the remaining 32 athletes

were put through an intensive training process,

consisting of all sorts of tough events,

as well as coaching from top athletes like Phillips Idowu.

You may have seen me out there on the athletics track.

What you may not have known is I have a huge passion for basketball.

Kelly Sotherton joined them on the track.

I'm here today to show you how to sprint

and pass the baton in the relays.

-Sean to Fraser.

-Hand!

Great to meet someone like a legend like her.

To have her coach us....

To have her coach us is just something else.

They were even treated to a special display of Olympic expertise.

He's just flown back from Tokyo,

where he won this on the pommel - Lewis Smith.

Lewis was the first Briton to win a medal in gymnastics

at the Olympic Games since 1928.

He's now in training with Team GB for London 2012.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

What's your top tip for succeeding in your sport?

Great sacrifice, great reward, dedication,

and you've got to stay committed

but, overall, you know, you've just got to have fun.

But fun was the furthest thing from their minds

when the athletes competed in the tough obstacle course.

And with the day of reckoning approaching when half would be sent home,

the strain really started to show.

-You all right, Han?

-Yeah, fine.

The first part of our course was a tough challenge.

It was cold, it was wet and miserable and it was very tiring.

At points you just wanted to give up, it was that bad.

There's a point in the last lap I was just down doing press ups,

I wanted to cry.

Everyone gave their all but ultimately only four athletes

from each nation could be selected to represent their country.

Those tricky decisions lay in the hands of their mentors.

The ones who won the event here, I'm not necessarily going to pick.

First to break the news was England's mentor, decathlete Dean.

It's been very, very difficult I have to say, but you're through!

His ultimate team - Shanice, Emily, Allard and Leo.

When Dean told us we got through, it just felt so unreal.

I could not believe it. I decided not to tell my mum until I met her at the train station.

And when I told her, she screamed as loud as anything.

Ice dancer Sinead made the tough choices for Team Scotland.

It's up to me to tell you four

that you will be going through to the final.

Her team line up, Ellen, Sarah, Frazzle and Fraser.

We were absolutely ecstatic.

We were jumping up and down, hugging everyone

and just big grins on our faces.

The squad from Wales waited nervously

to hear who sprinter Christian had picked.

I'll be honest. This has been so, so hard, really hard.

You guys, you're my team!

ALL: Yeah!

Team Wales, Isabel, Jake, Hannah and Joe.

Everyone was so excited and all of us were crying,

we were so happy.

Boxer Barry delivered the news to the Northern Ireland athletes.

-Right, you are my team!

-What?

-You are my team.

His line up... Andrew, Sarah, Phoebe and Thomas.

When Barry told us we were through,

I think everyone was quite shocked but I was just excited

and it didn't really sink in until a couple of days after.

Northern Ireland, can we do it?

ALL: Yeah!

With the teams selected, construction began on the arena

that would stage the ultimate sporting contest.

Four days later, the athletes got their first glimpse

of what they let themselves in for.

Oh, wow!

It's awesome, isn't it? So good!

Oh, my!

-Oh, my!

-Whoa!

Amazing! That is mental.

-How awesome is that, guys?

-I'm going to have to decide

which of you are the strongest. That will be my thing - how to work the strategy.

The mentors discuss tactics and strategy with their teams

and showed them how the games should be played - or not -

when it came to bungee basketball.

I want to give it a go - just so I can try and give some feedback,

some information back and just try and help the guys a little bit.

But I'm just a big kid really, I just want to have a go.

Getting the balls in the net would be my feedback, Christian.

Finally, the tournament could begin.

Nation battled nation over six matches,

competing in a variety of awesome games,

especially designed to test the core skills of...

Only the two highest scoring teams could go through to the grand final,

so every point in every game counted

and what great games they were!

Push O War's tough.

To be up against such strong components

as Joe and Issy was amazing.

I mean, they really had us.

England and Wales was, you know, really tense.

They were there for kind of five minutes, you know, battling.

Get your back up against...

It was extremely hard. My arms were burning.

Allard was tough. He kept me going

and it was so close.

We had a great comeback and we pushed them all the way till the end.

Allard was a good team-mate to work with and there was a great outcome.

We won!

The first shot of the Push O War was against Ireland,

we were off within five seconds.

Good guys, dig in. Dig in. Dig, dig, dig!

Competing against Ellen and Fraser in Push O War,

they were really up for it, and me and Thomas got straight into them in the first round.

It was a bit of a pushover from there.

That was an absolute disaster.

Thomas and Andrew absolutely obliterated us.

They pushed us completely off the end.

Their technique was obviously better than ours

and me and Ellen just weren't able to hold up to their power.

Andrew and Thomas and Allard and Shanice

undisputed Push O War Champions.

Bungee Basketball, what fun!

Come on, guys. Well done! Come on, guys.

It's just so fun to be on a bungee,

just to go up and down and then just to score hoops at the end

-and just to see the ball fall into the basket.

-Perfect!

Good man. He said he might fill it up -

he nearly did.

I play basketball for my specialist sport

but I never thought it would have such a twist to it.

I didn't mind the jumping off part and then bungeeing back up.

It was when you actually had to shoot a basket I struggled with.

Undoubtedly the two strongest stars of Bungee Basketball

were Andrew and Allard.

The competitive side sort of came out in me

and I kept them there for about four minutes and did my best.

But could mentors Dean and Christian match their success?

The two of you have springs in your steps.

Which one's got the springiest?

-Me.

-Easy from Christian.

-Dean, what do you reckon?

-Probably Christian.

But I'll still give him a run for his money.

That's what we look forward to seeing. Best of luck.

Let's see what you can do.

Both mentors got off to a perfect start.

And that was two each. So far, so good.

With the scores at 3-3,

Christian tried a different tactic to slow Dean down.

Get out of my way, you!

Dean's aim was always precise, Christian's a bit more fluky

and, as Dean racked up the baskets, Christian was more miss than hit.

Overall, Dean was masterful, although Christian did have his moments.

As the round came to an end, the scores reflected the performances.

Christian scored six baskets, but Dean was triumphant with 12,

although neither wanted to call it a day when the final buzzer sounded.

Dean played it down to me that, "Ah, I'm not good at this. In practice I wasn't very good."

And he goes there, and pulls out basket after basket after basket.

Oh, Skywalker.

Skywalker's my favourite game.

The best thing was climbing up the tube like a spider.

Go on, Iz.

You needed a lot of grip and I didn't think I was actually

going to make it up to the top.

The worst part was I'm afraid of heights.

I was against Isabel and I'm much smaller than her,

the balancing and climbing up it was just fine

but reaching was impossible and I just fell.

Unlucky, mate. Unlucky!

Issy was amazing at Skywalker

and I just... It was difficult to just to reach down

and be able to grab the chain and pull it up, it was so heavy.

Issy deserved to win that one.

But she didn't just win that one.

Isabel won Skywalker every time she played it.

Outside the arena, one of the games

that really kept the athletes on their toes was The Chaser.

Everyone got to play this game and all they had to do

was sprint for 150 metres and cross the finish line

without being overtaken by the man in the mask.

Harder than it sounds and many fell foul of his awesome acceleration.

The fastest survived to tell the tale.

The Chaser was probably my favourite trial

because it's my speciality and also Issy's,

so we tried our best to get points for Wales.

She certainly did that, and both her and Andrew

ran the best times of any athlete.

Our fastest four were...

Flagpole was basically a big wooden tree trunk

with nail bars stuck in the side of it.

We had to climb up to the top as fast as possible.

You had to stand at the top and you had to collect these rings,

crawl down, pass it to your mentor, crawl up and do exactly the same for another one.

It doesn't look very high but when you are up there

it's really shaky and your legs are just like shaking.

Come on, Thomas, keep going.

I was against Allard, who's taller than me, he's stronger than me.

That meant because I was smaller, I could move faster

and I managed to beat him but not by a lot.

That was probably one of the toughest ones

because I was against Jacob from Wales

and he's smaller, so when he got up to the top

he had a better balance, and the result showed that.

It's my favourite event.

Jake and Frazzle's smaller size proved a big advantage.

They remained unbeaten at Flagpole.

But it wasn't all plain sailing.

When Allard and Frazzle both pulled the wrong ring, this is what happened.

They got a face full of flag.

Frazzle, are you in there?

Apparently, it's simple.

But I haven't quite got the hang of it.

Agh!

Spin shot was quite hard because, while you're trying to focus

to get the ball in the goal, you're concentrating on the spikes not hitting you.

Me and Joe were throwing the balls at him at the same time

and it was about timing. He was screaming, like "throw the ball at me now,"

while getting hit in the head by the branches.

It was fun but really you had to concentrate loads.

Spin Shot. It was absolutely awesome.

I was trying to run one way while catching balls

and trying to kick them in the goal,

while trying to compete for my country and against Jacob.

It was just... It was exhilarating and really fun.

Luckily enough, I won, so it was just amazing.

And Leo's score of 12 goals was never beaten.

Being up against Shanice from the England team in Spin Shot,

football and basketball, was tough

because she's very good at basketball and I'm not very great at it

and it was really hard

because the poles just coming round and hitting you. It's really hard.

Unlucky, mate!

Even national basketball player Shanice struggled

with Spin Shot's spinning arms. Could mentor Dean do it better?

Annoyingly, yes, he could.

Ah!

All right, Dean, you're done now. Quit showing off.

But Sinead discovered that she should probably stick

to spinning on the ice.

This is well harder than it looks.

KLAXON BLASTS

Oh, wow!

-You took that quite seriously, Dean.

-You know what,

if my decathlon was like that and I scored as many points

in the Bungee Basketball as in my decathlon, I probably would have won Olympic medals.

Hangbar was a killer.

It wasn't just the height of it going up, it was the sense of shakiness.

As you went up, you felt wobbly, so you felt like you had to really clutch on.

Keep it going, you're doing really well. You look really comfortable.

Sinead kind of told us just to kind of close our eyes and just zone out.

Nice and relaxed, guys!

When you're hanging in Hangbar, there's so much pain.

The worst problem is that your hands lose grip

and once they've slipped, you can't get your grip back again.

We knew how good Emily was, so she was the one to beat.

Emily, oh! Hanging on for minutes on end but it was quite difficult.

You try and readjust your grip and that's when you end up falling.

It was just how long you could hold on for

until you felt the pain and let go.

Hangbar's one of my strongest events and me and Leo have been doing well as a team

and got the team some good points in it.

That is an understatement! Emily never lost at Hangbar.

After each nation had competed against the other nations,

their overall scores were added together.

The teams waited anxiously to find out who would be going through to the grand final.

The first team into the final is...

Team England!

SCREAMING

The team going through to face England is...

-Team Northern Ireland.

-Yeah!

SCREAMING

In a desperately close contest,

Northern Ireland and England battled it out for supremacy.

Good start!

England were ahead by just a few points for most of the match

but an impressive sprint from Andrew and Thomas,

meant Northern Ireland took a narrow lead going in to the final game,

The Ring Relay.

Whoever wins this Ring Relay will be crowned

Ultimate Sports Day Champions.

Shanice against Thomas on the first leg

of a 200-metre cycle race.

It's very close so far with Thomas just edging out in front.

None of these athletes will want to let their teams down so they'll all give it 100%.

Thomas gets there first and he leaps off the bike to tag Sarah.

Shanice is right behind him and she tags Leo.

Sarah and Leo race up the Skywalker towers

and Leo's pulled ahead of Sarah.

He grabs the rope and tries to drag himself on to the beam.

Leo's up and he works his way towards the first of 11 rings

that need to be collected. He's got them.

He grabs the first two,

they're worth five points each but,

the team that finishes first gets an extra 50 points.

So, both teams know they have to win this relay to be sure of victory.

Sarah's got her two rings now and Leo is on his way down the ladder.

Gymnast Sarah catching up though, as Leo gets caught up on the ladder.

Leo grabs the next ring as does Sarah. This is extremely close.

They've both got all the rings now.

They need to get on the ground and tag their team mates.

Leo tags Shanice while he's on the floor.

She sprints off to the bungee, Sarah tags Thomas, who follows.

It's bungee time now, Allard's got his first ring of three

and Andrew launches into play.

We all know how good these two are at bungee.

Allard's got his next ring

and here comes Andrew after his second ring as well.

Allard takes his third and Andrew is right behind him.

That means Shanice and Thomas can race to their bikes

and begin another 200 metre cycle sprint.

Shanice is first on the bike and off she goes.

Thomas is in the saddle now. Can he catch up?

Thomas really going for it.

He knows he was quicker than Shanice so he's really pumping the pedals.

But Shanice isn't going to make it easy for him.

She's got the lead and she wants to keep it.

Dean will be so proud of her performance

but who's going to finish first?

It's Shanice! She dives off the bike to tag Emily.

Just as Thomas finishes and tags Phoebe.

So, it's between Emily and Phoebe.

Emily is shooting up that pole.

Phoebe's not far behind.

It's Emily that leaps first though!

Team England!

England were victorious, and who better to give them their medals

than double World Champion Phillips Idowu?

Well done, guys.

England's the Ultimate Sports Day Champions.

Best memories was definitely the winning. Everyone likes winning.

Nobody likes losing but being beaten by England was even worse.

But the tournament wasn't finished there.

There was one more match to play.

The mentors had the difficult job of picking their best athletes

to form a new combined team - The All Stars.

After much deliberation, they decided on Ellen from Scotland,

Andrew from Northern Ireland, Isabel from Wales

and Allard from England. A formidable line up,

but they needed to be as their opposition consisted

of some of the best sporting talent in the UK.

Amy Williams...

We're definitely here to win. We can't let the kids show us up.

Kelly Sotherton.

I don't care if they're kids. We're still going to do better.

-Phillips Idowu.

-I'm going out to win.

And, if I win, I'm definitely going to be enjoying myself.

And Harry Aikines-Aryeetey.

We're going out there to absolutely destroy those kids.

On the Sky Walker, Isabel took on Amy,

a winter Olympics gold medallist on the skeleton.

Isabel showed Amy just why she'd never been beaten in this game.

I barely got my head around it and she'd already completed it.

So, I've got to hope my team mates do best on the rest of the challenges.

Ellen and triple jumper Phillips went hoop for hoop

on the bungee basketball, with only two baskets in it,

after four minutes.

Couldn't quite find the rhythm, but I started to fatigue.

I felt I was working hard to get back on the stand but it was great fun.

I think it's close, she might have won.

-SET!

-The Chaser finally met his match

in 4 x 100 metre bronze medallist Harry

and it proved to be a sprint too far for the man of mystery.

Halfway through the chase, an injury forced him to pull up

and the Dream Team picked up some crucial points.

In bike power, an early slip cost heptathlete Kelly dearly.

All Star Allard beat her by just five metres.

KLAXON BLARES

How much did you want to beat Allard in this?

Definitely, because he's been cheeky all day.

Andrew came up against sprinter Harry on Spin Shot,

who managed to claw back some much needed points for the Dream Team.

KLAXON BLARES

Hold up there, Harry Double A. Hold up there.

So, once again, everything rested on the Ring Relay.

After a close start, the All Stars took a slight lead

as they came off the Sky Walker...

..but when Phillips missed one of the rings, the gap widened

and the Dream Team found themselves with some serious catching up to do.

Kelly did her best to win back some time,

which gave Harry a fighting chance to catch Allard on the Flagpole.

Harry shot up there like a rat up a drainpipe but the lead was too big.

Allard leapt to victory for the All Stars.

Let's hear it for Allard and the All Stars!

So, what do the athletes take away from their experience

on Ultimate Sports Day?

I've got some really amazing unforgettable memories.

The whole experience was just great.

It's not hard to train for something new if you put effort into it.

I've gotten to meet some of my sporting heroes, like Dean Macey

and Phillips Idowu, and I got to participate in games

that were out of this world.

I've got so much more confidence with myself and my ability.

It was such an amazing experience.

Meeting all these new people and making so many new friends was great.

I can get along and make friends

with people, not just my own age, but older than me.

Meeting all the brilliant people from like England,

Scotland and Wales and then hopefully we'll keep in touch after USD.

It's taught me to live life to the full,

try everything, do everything, give it a go

and, if I don't do that well, I can get back up and try something else.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd