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5 Fort McMurray firefighters have returned house with medals and powerful showings from the 2023 World Police and Firefighter Video games in Winnipeg.
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Battalion Chief Ryan Pitchers gained two silver medals in large-bore rifle taking pictures. Captain Dave Maki gained silver in pole vault and sixth in 100-metre run. Kyrianne Mills gained two bronze medals in bowling. Captain Mark Howdle completed fourth in golf. Senior Firefighter Jordon Corridor had two fourth place finishes, two fifth place finishes and a sixth place end in several swimming occasions.
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From July 28 to August 6, the 5 athletes competed alongside greater than 8,500 different athletes representing firefighting, regulation enforcement and policing. Members got here from greater than 50 nations to compete in additional than 60 sports activities.
Pitchers mentioned he was stunned at how nicely he shot. He had solely shot in a single different taking pictures competitors hosted by the Fort McMurray Legion on the Fort McMurray Fish and Recreation Affiliation. Pitchers—who additionally served as an infantry soldier with third Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Gentle Infantry (3 PPCLI)—was hooked on the expertise and wished to enter extra competitions.
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When a signup for the video games had been introduced, Pitchers jumped on the probability to shoot competitively alongside his friends.
“It was a number of enjoyable and really nicely carried out,” mentioned Pitchers in an interview. “All people did rather well. It was a really, very, excellent displaying for our first video games.”
Maki final competed in a hearth video games in 2002 and didn’t know the way nicely he would do in Winnipeg. He’s additionally joyful along with his efficiency. Assembly colleagues from around the globe was additionally an attention-grabbing expertise, he mentioned. His pole vault class had athletes from nations like Malaysia, the U.S., India. The gold-medal winner in his pole vault occasion was a former Olympian for Greece.
“It was a reasonably good group of fellows and everyone was fairly like-minded,” mentioned Maki. “Aggressive, too. But additionally cheerful and enjoyable.”
The subsequent video games are in Birmingham, Alabama in 2025. Regional Emergency Providers (RES) is hoping to place collectively a bigger staff for the occasion. The municipality was not requested for assist forward of the Winnipeg video games. Nevertheless, which may change if sufficient firefighters join the 2025 staff.
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