BROMSGROVE Army officer Tamsin Clark tested herself to the limit when she competed in a gruelling cross-country ski tournament in the French Alps.ENDURANCE: Tamsin Clark competed at the Army's UK divisional Nordic Ski Championships.

Clark, a member of the general support medical regiment, won three silver medals in the Army's UK divisional Nordic Ski Championships at Serre Chevalier resort.

The tough 27-year-old, who only took up the sport in November, braved gale force winds and driving snow to win a medal in the five kilometre Novice Classic Race.

She also clinched silver medals in the individual ladies and team sections of the 15km Classic Nordic race.

The Classic race is where a parallel narrow ski track, about 15 centimetres wide for each ski, is cut into the snow and competitors have to stay in the grooves except for overtaking.

She said: "I really found it difficult to start off with. For the first two weeks I was a bit like Bambi on ice - legs all over the place, and then something happens and it all clicks and suddenly you are flying along. It suits me because I am a cross-country runner."

Clark and her teammates took part in the 4x10km relay, two biathlon races, where competitors ski and shoot, and the blue riband 20km military patrol race.

Clarks' parents, Stuart and Glenda, live in Fairfield. She joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 2000, after graduating from Sheffield University.