SA firefighters show their mettle at WFG in Portugal
FIREFIGHTER Emile Conrad flew the South African flag high at the 14th edition of this year’s World Firefighters Games (WFG) in Lisbon, Portugal, clinching a second place in his age category globally (age 35-37) for the Toughest Firefighter Alive (TFA) competition.
Conrad, from the Garden Route District Municipality, finished 10th in the world in the international sporting event that welcomed all full-time, parttime, volunteer, retired, structural and bush firefighters, fire service support personnel, aviation fire services, and military emergency response personnel from across the globe.
The games were held from April 30 to May 7.
Staged every two years in a different country, the games offer more than 50 sports and challenges, including archery, rugby Sevens, windsurfing, poker, swimming, athletics and softball with the “Toughest Firefighter Alive” being the main event.
“I am very happy with my accomplishment and feel very overwhelmed to be 10th in the world for this competition. I came to compete, and the training I have applied to grow my fitness definitely paid off. Now I can re-assess and see what I can do better, and train for that, ” said Conrad.
The 37-year-old from George is no stranger to these games as he won the men’s individual South African Toughest Firefighter Alive competition five times consecutively, starting in 2013.
He first participated internationally in 2015, when he landed 23rd place overall. He has been a firefighter since 2009 after seeing little progress in his business as a carpenter.
“After going through the recession in 2008 I realised that it is a risk to have your own business, and God just gave me a love for firefighting, and that was where I realised my talent, which is to give my all physically.
“I made certain calculations from 2015 when I applied certain game plans, because there were certain aspects in the competition that I wanted to grow in, such as endurance and recovery between events.
“I moved from 23rd to 10th place, which is a huge jump, but most of my training I have done by myself with the gym at home and training at work,” he said.