The winning Pepsi team.

Pepsi Bottling Group has won the overall 2009 Chesapeake Forklift Safety Rodeo company team top champions title for the mid-Atlantic region at the Howard County fairgrounds in Baltimore, Maryland. The first runner-up in the champion team competition was Dal-Tile and the second runner-up was Terminal Corporation.

Pepsi's Thomas Klennert won the individual title - and a USD500 prize, while team-mate Aaron Frye was first runner-up, followed by Chad Cinnamon from Dal-Tile.

The winning Pepsi team has been officially invited to compete in the 2009 US Open in Ohio in October, representing the mid-Atlantic region.

Organisers say an event highlight was the participation of three women competitors: Alicia Bell from Pepsi, Donna Young from Random House and Kim George from Diageo. All three women first competed in their own company's internal forklift rodeo to qualify for the Chesapeake event.

Young ranked seventh in the individual contest and posted one of the top course scores.

Co-organised by the Chesapeake Region Safety Council and Atlantic Lift Truck, the 2009 Chesapeake Safety Forklift Rodeo was designed to promote safety in the workplace and drew over 200 company officials, safety managers, competitors and spectators.

Pictures from the event are available here.