It’s called the toughest two minutes in sports for a reason.
More than 50 firefighters from across Canada (and two from the United States) descended on Whitehorse’s Main Street over the weekend to attempt the 2018 Firefit challenge.
According to the Yukon Firefighters’ Fitness Association, the course replicates obstacles that firefighters would face during a typical emergency situation, where they battle against their “most mortal enemy: time.”
Whether an individual or team relay, firefighters start the race with a run up six flights of stairs carrying a 19-kg hose. Then they must hoist the same weight up more than 12 m using a hand-over-hand motion.
After they touch every stair on their way back down to ground level, they use a four-kg mallet to whack a weight back about 40 cm. Then they must drag a fire hose 43 m to spray down a target.
Lastly, racers drag a 79-kg victim backwards a distance of 30 m before crossing the finish line.
The goal is to finish the course in less than two minutes.
Contact Crystal Schick at crystal.schick@yukon-news.com
