Fort McMurray firefighters win medals, sturdy showings from World Police and Firefighter Video games

5 Fort McMurray firefighters have returned residence with medals and powerful showings from the 2023 World Police and Firefighter Video games in Winnipeg.

Battalion Chief Ryan Pitchers received two silver medals in large-bore rifle capturing. Captain Dave Maki received silver in pole vault and sixth in 100-metre run. Kyrianne Mills received 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.

From July 28 to August 6, the 5 athletes competed alongside greater than 8,500 different athletes representing firefighting, legislation enforcement and policing. Contributors got here from greater than 50 nations to compete in additional than 60 sports activities.

Pitchers mentioned he was shocked at how properly he shot. He had solely shot in a single different capturing competitors hosted by the Fort McMurray Legion on the Fort McMurray Fish and Sport 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 needed to enter extra competitions.

When a signup for the video games have been introduced, Pitchers jumped on the likelihood to shoot competitively alongside his friends.

“It was a number of enjoyable and really properly achieved,” mentioned Pitchers in an interview. “All people did rather well. It was a really, very, superb displaying for our first video games.”

Maki final competed in a fireplace video games in 2002 and didn’t know the way properly he would do in Winnipeg. He’s additionally glad along with his efficiency. Assembly colleagues from all over the world 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 fairly good group of fellows and everyone was fairly like-minded,” mentioned Maki. “Aggressive, too. But additionally cheerful and enjoyable.”

The following video games are in Birmingham, Alabama in 2025. Regional Emergency Providers (RES) is hoping to place collectively a bigger workforce for the occasion. The municipality was not requested for assist forward of the Winnipeg video games. Nonetheless, that may change if sufficient firefighters join the 2025 workforce.

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vmcdermott@postmedia.com

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