The golden years
Guy Gallant fails to win an individual medal, but betters his best in Oshawa competition
TRURO, N.S. – A North River firefighter bested himself before the world at his latest Firefit challenge in Oshawa, Ont.
Guy Gallant started by running in ‘two wild card’ races at the Firefit World and National Championships that ran Sept. 11-15. He scored a time of two minutes and 58 seconds in his first race and a personal best of 2:45 in the second one.
“I then ran in the finals on Saturday and once again beat my personal best with a time of 2:41 , which I was ecstatic with,” said Gallant by email. “All the training had paid off, as I cut one minute and seven seconds off my time from Truro.”
Indeed, Gallant won gold in his relay.
At the competition, he joined an over-50 team including three other firefighters from Atlantic Canada.
“After our preliminary seeding race we were seeded third going into the knockout round with a time of 1:33,” said Gallant. “In our first knock out race, we beat the Canadian all-star team with a 1:28 race, advancing to the gold medal race against Team Germany and, in the end, we ended up beating the Germans by 17-hundredths of a second.”
Their time in the final gold medal relay race was 1:24.52.
During the Firefit challenge, firefighters had to race up stairs carrying a hose reel, smash a target with a hammer, aim water from the hose and drag a lifesized dummy to the finish line.
Back home, Gallant serves as deputy chief at the North River and District Fire Department. He competed in the over-50 category, just as he did at the earlier Firefit competition in Truro last month.
In his individual races, Gallant placed 11th in the chief’s division, ninth in Canada and 16th internationally in his category.
RECORD BREAKERS
A total of four world records were broken at the Firefit competition:
Fastest-ever open man: 1:10.02, Ian Van Reenen, Sarnia, Ont.
Fastest open woman: one minute 51.77 seconds, Katherine Ross from Brampton, Ont.
Fastest woman over 40: 1:59.25, Vanessa Gilbert from St. Catharines Ont.
Fastest 64-year-old male: 1:55.25, Steve Mcaleer from CFB Gagetown, N.B.