A PAIR of Hampshire workers were pushed to their limits on a week-long exercise with the Territorial Army.

Graduate engineer Victoria Forster and technician Gordon Lees of Totton engineering firm Gifford & Partners joined 181 executives from across the country for a gruelling team-building and adventure experience at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

Called Exercise Executive Stretch, it is an annual event organised by the TA, designed to test the capabilities of employees with senior management potential.

Sales executives, construction workers, engineers and marketing directors were just some of the 20-40-year-old people who left their day jobs behind to face the challenges thrown at them.

Not for the faint-hearted, Exercise Executive Stretch involves ten challenges, including recovering an overturned vehicle, responding to emergency medical trauma, balancing on parallel beams and leaping across gaps 60 feet up in the air.

However, the Gifford quartet rose to the challenge.-Gordon said: "Each task was very demanding, had a tight time limit and required lateral thinking.

"We all enjoyed it. It was amazing to see how a group of people that didn't really know each other grew as a team."

For more information on Exercise Executive Stretch 2006, contact 01252 357624.