A TEAM including North Yorkshire Police officers have placed third in a national CrossFit competition.

UK Police Throwdown was a CrossFit competition set up to challenge officers from forces around the country, with 34 teams from 18 forces taking part.

Sergeant Danny Leach from North Yorkshire Police has taken part in CrossFit - which is a mix of high intensity interval training, weightlifting, gymnastics and other exercises - for more than a year, and was joined by fellow NYP officer PC Mark Grimes.

Their team of four was rounded out with colleagues found through the competition forum - PC Amanda Miskell from West Yorkshire Police and Croydon-based Sgt Chris Morbey from British Transport Police - and together they finished third in the two-day competition earlier this week.

Sgt Leach said: "It's been such a positive experience and we're already looking forward to next year.

"It started about nine months ago after an officer from Devon and Cornwall nest a message out asking if anyone in the police did CrossFit and was interested in taking part in a competition. That quickly snowballed into what was the first ever police only CrossFit competition."

Teams took part in WODs - workouts of the day - which were scaled to each member's capability, with final timings, repetitions and scores calculated to create a leadership table, with Sgt Leach's team finishing third overall. Another North Yorkshire officer - PCSO Claire Viney - joined a team of three officers from around the country, and placed 27th, with Sgt Leach noting they were "pleased" not to finish last.

Sgt Leach said: "It was a hard slog, but it was fun more than anything else. There were some hard workouts but the best part of it is we had a lot of fun.

"There wasn't any real rivalry, anyone can do CrossFit and it's really friendly. There were people there who had never done CrossFit before, but just turned up because their force needed someone and they were able to get involved."

Sgt Leach, who is based in Acomb, said the team was well supported by the force's sports and social club, and won the spirit of the games or team of the tournament award.