Competing in the games for the second time, the Vietnamese chefs finished last in the finals of the Field Kitchen contest behind Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia.

Russia won the gold medal, and Belarus the silver. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan shared the third prize at the contest, held in Russia’s Alabino City, near Moscow.

The competition required each team to compete in shooting and cooking sessions.

For the cooking part, they had to make dishes in accordance with an arbitrary recipe and then an established recipe, aside from baking cakes and bread.

The Vietnamese team found the going difficult, as they had to cook traditional Russian food, including dishes they’d never known before.

This is the second year Vietnam is participating in the International Army Games organized by the Russian Defense Ministry. It has sent a contingent of 125 officers and soldiers to contest eight disciplines: tank crew, medical staff, food service specialists, emergency rescue personnel, literary/art and dancing contestants, snipers, combat engineers, and chemical reconnaissance vehicle crew.

The Vietnamese chemical reconnaissance team and combat engineers finished in third place, despite taking part in the event for the first time.

This year, the Army Games has attracted over 6,000 military personel athletes in 223 teams from 39 countries from Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and Latin America.

The competitions are being held August 3-17 in 10 Eurasian countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan.