Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended the British Invictus trials yesterday in Bath. The trials took place at the University of Bath Sports Training Village.
Harry and Meghan met some of the 400 military personnel trying for one of the 72 spots on the UK team for this year’s competitions. Kensington Palace said that 45% of those participating in the trials yesterday had not “applied for an Invictus Games before.”
These trials are being organised by Help for Heroes with support from the Ministry of Defence, the Royal British Legion and the Endeavour Fund.
The Prince and his American fiancé watched trials for sports including volleyball and track and field.
Prince Harry and Meghan meeting Kelly Ganfield and her family. @KensingtonRoyal/Twitter
One of the hopefuls Prince Harry and Meghan met was Kelly Ganfield, a visually impaired athlete, who is trying for a spot to compete in Sydney. She was there with her family and competed in Toronto last year.
They also spoke to Maurillia Simpson, who was injured training for Afghanistan, spoke to the couple and later told People magazine, “Every time [Harry] sees me now he gives me an embrace. It’s just something we do, and I always tell him how much I appreciate him as a person and for who he is to us as soldiers and how gratefully we are for him giving us this as part of our recovery.”
Maurillia also talked to Meghan about the windy weather and congratulated her on the upcoming Royal Wedding next month. “We were talking about the weather, and she joked about how British she has already become because she’s always talking about the weather. She said, ‘I’m British now. I’m totally British because I speak about the weather all the time’.”
Sydney, Australia, will be the fourth host of the Invictus Games. The initial competition was held in London in 2014. Orlando, Florida, USA hosted it the next year, and last year, Toronto, Ontario, Canada were the hosts.
The 2018 Sydney Invictus Games will be held from 20 through 27 October with 18 countries competing in 11 sports. Meghan also confirmed during their visit that the couple would be in Sydney to cheer on the competitors at the 2018 Games.
The pair made their first official appearance together at a tennis match during the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto.
