More success for Northamptonshire firefighters in Challenge competition

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service continued its recent run of winning medals at the Welsh Firefighter Challenge.

Taking place in Swansea over the weekend (June 3), the Welsh Firefighter Challenge is a regional sporting event for serving and retired firefighters.

The event raises both awareness of the skills that firefighters need to keep communities safe, but also helps raise much needed funds for The Fire Fighters Charity – which offers specialist lifelong support for current and retired members of the Fire family.

The challenge sees firefighters test their skills and fitness to the maximum in several stages including running, carrying hoses and dragging dummies, and seeing who can complete the gruelling tasks in the quickest time.

Firefighter Paul Webb won the Silver Medal in his age category (45-49), missing out on Gold by just two seconds, and Stef Douglas (who recently retired from NFRS as a Group Commander) went one better by winning Gold in his age category (50+). Stef is pictured in the middle below, wearing his gold medal.

In the relay event, two teams competed on behalf of NFRS. One team – consisting of Dan Ireland, Henry Sleight, Paul Webb and Stef Douglas – were runners-up, while a second team – consisting of Dan Harding, Ronnie Sherratt, Ant Atkins and Lee Brown – came in fourth place.

Dean Keeber also competed in the main challenge, but sadly had to pull out due to injury.

Reflecting on taking part, Henry Sleight said: “It was a fantastic day with loads of people cheering us on, and it was an incredible atmosphere to be part of.

“We had some individual success which was fantastic, but this was also the first time we sent two teams to compete in the relay, and we were really happy with how both teams finished.

“Representing Northamptonshire is always something we are proud to do, but it’s also a fantastic way of maintaining the fitness that we need for our jobs, and it helps in terms of keeping our skills sharp for incidents as well.”