Members of the Drumheller Fire Department once again shined at the national FireFit Competition, bringing home a pile of hardware.
This year, six members competed at the Canadian Nationals and World FireFit Competition. They were held in Kamloops from September 25 to 29. Competitors included Jeff Gerlinger of the East Coulee Hall, Keith Hodgson, Merv Smith, Kyle Smith, Mitch Smith and Duane Bolin.
Bolin, Merv and Hodgson competed in the Over 50 relay team and won gold. Bolin and Merv also won gold in the over 50 Tech 2 Relay. This is a race where each competitor takes on half of a course, and has a cylinder exchange at the midway point.
In the individual events, Bolin won gold in the over-60 class, and Hodgson won silver in the over-65 class.
The team of Bolin, Merv Gerlinger and Hodgson won bronze in the over-40 Team Aggregate.
The competition hosted over 190 competitors from seven countries. The competition was stiff, especially for some of the younger racers, who were going head-to-head against full-time firefighters.
They weren’t alone in representing the area. Hanna Firefighters Devon Boos of the Hanna Fire Department was the fastest volunteer firefighter and won third place Canadian Overall.
The Drumheller firefighters qualified for nationals by competing at the Spruce Medows event on June 15, 16 and 17.
