Wounded warriors got a send-off Saturday as they prepare to travel across the country to compete in the Warrior Games.

The second annual Torch Run 10-kilometer race and 5K fun run drew nearly 1,000 runners to downtown Columbus to support six Fort Benning warrior-athletes selected to represent the Army at the 2011 Warrior Games May 16-19 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Soldiers from the Warrior Transition Battalion ran the 10K while carrying an Olympic torch.

The Soldiers headed to Colorado are: Quintarious Almon, Peter Danielson, Matthew Harvey, Robert Nuss, LaCrisha Wheeler and team assistant coach, Ronald Black, all of WTB.

According to competition officials, the Warrior Games, sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Department of Defense, provides a focal event to empower the incorporation of athletics into military wounded warrior programs.

The event serves as an introduction to Paralympic sports for injured service members and a recruiting tool for U.S. Paralympic Team coaches.

More than 200 wounded, ill, and injured service men and women are expected to compete in seven sports this year, including track and field events, archery, sitting volleyball, shooting relays and wheelchair basketball. All eligible athletes are drawn proportionately from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard based on their disability.

The Fort Benning Soldiers depart Sunday for Colorado, Black said. The extra days will give the Soldiers time to train with their respective teams and acclimate to the city’s 6,000-foot elevation, he said.

The five Fort Benning hopefulls were whittled down from 30 WTB Soldiers who submitted applications to the Warrior Training Command.

The inaugural Warrior Games took place in May 2010 in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center grounds, the Air Force Academy and Fort Carson.