YORK businessman, Tony Kavanagh swapped his suit for camouflage when he tackled a gruelling Army challenge.

An events manager at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate, Tony, 38, beat 100 executives from all over the north east in the Executive Stretch at Catterick, North Yorkshire.

Tony, who lives in Clifton Green, York, won the trophy for the best male competitor in the exercise. A member of the winning Yellow 2 team, he rowed a dinghy across a lake amid explosions, reversed a tank through cones and put up a 30ft high signals mast.

He also navigated his way across North Yorkshire moorland at night before sleeping in the open air.

"The exercise has been great fun and we had a fantastic team - there was no aggro no matter how upset or stressed we got," he said.

"We made 'Don't Stop Me Now', by Queen our theme tune for the weekend ...and we didn't. Winning was cool, but I couldn't have done it without the great bunch of people in the team."

Tony won an engraved glass bowl for his efforts.

The exercise was organised and run by the 4th Battalion Parachute Regiment based in Pudsey, Glasgow and London. It is designed to give managers an insight into the Territorial Army and to show them and their employers what the TA can offer and how it can benefit them in the workplace.

Updated: 09:33 Friday, June 18, 2004