10th anniversary for operator challenge

This october will see the 10th consecutive Caterpillar Operator Challenge take place at the company's demonstration centre in Malaga, Spain. The event will see dozens of construction equipment operators from across Europe, the Middle East and the CIS take part.

Malcolm High, event coordinator at Cat's Malaga Demonstration and Learning center told CF, "The concept will remain the same as in previous years. The competitors' skills will be tested and scored in different machines, ranging from large to mini equipment, and the one with the best total score is the winner. However, this year the selection for the Malaga finals is tougher than before and only the 48 top operators from 23 participating countries will be there. I'm sure we will see an exciting competition between the greatest operators."

Participants in the finals in Malaga have already won local and national events run by local Cat dealers in Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Norway,

Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. Each country will be represented by one or two participants in the finals.

In the past five years, the winners of the competition have come from the Netherlands: Peter van Schaik won the competition in 2006 and 2005 while his countryman Ton Verdam took the title three consecutive times in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This year's competition is expected to be tougher than ever with the 48 operators taking part.