A brave Kinetic Warrior from Dartmouth has bagged a silver medal in the Varanger Arctic Kite Enduro (Vake), hailed the longest, hardest and toughest snow kite competition in the world.

Murray Smith, 28 was part of a two-man team representing GB in the World Championship race, which took place on April 8-14.

Forty-two elected two-man teams from around the globe met in the Artic north of Norway to take part in this four-day, 300km race from Berlevåg to Vardo, across the Varanger peninsula.

Teams from Norway, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and for the first time ever Great Britain were represented.

Great Britain was represented by the 'Kinetic Warriors' consisting of Murray and Alex Bennett, 28, from Southampton – who qualified for this year's World Championships after finishing ninth/24 in Vake 2012.

The race rules are: 1. Teams can only travel between 07:00 in the morning to 22:00 at night. 2. Teams must be totally self-sufficient throughout the race. 3. Each checkpoint must be made by the time stated to stay in the race. 4. Team members must arrive at the checkpoints and finish line together.

Equipped with kites, safety equipment, food supply and shelter all pulled on a Polk behind each team member, competitors navigate their chosen route across the vast undulating Nordic landscape.

The toughest part of the race is undoubtedly the unpredictable and severe weather conditions that the teams have to deal with, 80 mph winds, blizzards and temperatures reaching -50 degrees Celsius.

This year's race was full of highs and lows, 52 hours of competition with mixed amounts of wind. 

The first day was spent hiking and kiting, second day was a gruelling nine-hour slog without wind – which is when the Warriors secured their position in the top six – and the third day was a kiting sprint finish between four teams all fighting for second place.  

Murray is a professional kite surfer and extreme expeditionist, who also took part in the BBC/Discovery 2010 tribal competition series of Last Man Standing. Alex Bennett from Chandlers Ford, Hampshire, comes from an all-round competitive sports background with expertise in freestyle skiing and triathlons. 

This is an unbelievable achievement for such a young team who have limited race experience.

Despite not being able to practise over the winter due to lack of snow, unlike most of the other competitors who spend their entire winter out on the snow in training, the Kinetic Warriors succeeded on merits such as athletic ability, planning, technical skills and pure hard word.

Murray said: 'A true race of highs and lows, the lows almost beat us on several occasions but through British grit and determination we pushed through to the finish line.

'We were hoping for top five, something we hoped for before the race but knew would be hard!

'We are physically broken but emotionally on top of the world.'