Winton’s toughest two minutes in sport . . .
Southern firefighters young and old, recruit to officers, gathered in Winton to compete in the Southern Challenge on Saturday.
Sixty-four firefighters from 12 brigades based in Southland and Otago took on a gruelling session that tests firefighters skills and endurance all in one time based drill.
Dubbed the toughest two minutes in sport, the course involves stair climbing, ramming in a pole, running 40 metres, dragging a hose, breaking down a door, hose spraying and dragging a 90kg dummy to the finish line.
The competition varied with an assortment of ranks from recruit to officer and although the runs were timed in categories, the head-to-head competition lead to interesting match ups.
Invercargill recruit Andrew Eckhold’s first run saw him take on Winton station officer Steven McDowall, who has served at Winton brigade for nine years.
‘‘It’s my first time doing anything with the brigade,’’ Eckhold said as he prepared to take on the course.
The recruit showed promised against the veteran and Eckhold was leading on McDowall for most the course but lost pace on the final challenge of carrying the 90kg dummy as McDowall took a narrow photo finish win.
‘‘Yeah, I had to the beat the recruit,’’ McDowall said.
‘‘I’m always up for a challenge so I thought I’d get into it’’ Eckhold said. Eckhold said ‘‘it’s a bit more than your average drill. It’s everything crammed into three minutes.’’
Most agreed the hardest part of the course was the dummy pull.
‘‘It’s 90kgs and it’s a lot of weight to pull up right at the end of the course,’’ Winton firefighter Stuart Hill said.
One of the firefighters in the Female Open to beat was Winton’s Fliss Matheson who said the hardest part was the hose pull.
‘‘Everybody thinks about the dummy but the hose is surprisingly hard to pull,’’ Matheson said.
Whilst there was a competitive atmosphere, with firefighters aiming to topple each other and achieve personal goals, it was a great time for firefighters from various brigades across the region to come together.
Winton deputy chief officer and event organiser Guy Johnstone said ‘‘it’s just a bit of fun between the brigade.’’
The Cromwell Brigade were victorious in the end taking home all events except the 50+ category, which taken out by Mossburn’s Travis Naylor.
Cromwell will host the South Island competition on March 16.