The Firefit team from Thompson Fire and Emergency Services swept the titles at the Firefit Manitoba-Saskatchewan Regional Tournament in Prince Albert June 20, besting the other teams from the two prairie provinces in the individual, relay and team competitions.
"That qualifies us through to the nationals in Gaspe, Que.," said team member Kane Doran. "It was a fun learning experience for the new people on the team. I think we represented Thompson and the fire department well."
Chigol finished the gruelling course in 1:35.63, the fifth-best time at the tournament, which was also attended by teams from Alberta that did not figure in the regional standings.
"Ryan Chigol came first in the region," said Doran, referring to the individual event, in which Doran himself finished second in the region with a time of 1:36.16.
Other individual times for Thompson Firefit team members included 1:53.28 for Lonny Kopan, while Mel Angelstad and Corey Armstrong finished in 1:54.51 and 1:54.58, respectively.
The other two members of Thompson's Firefit training squad - Mark Cortens and Keith Day - had times of 2:52.37 and 4:45.22.
Thompson posted a time of 1:14.72 in the second round of the relay, tops among Manitoba and Saskatchewan teams, and second only to the team from the Grand Prairie, Alta. fire department, which completed the relay in 1:12.60. Thompson had the fastest first-round time, finishing in 1:18.99, more than a second faster than Grand Prairie.
"It went really well," said Doran, who said the relay time would hopefully be among the top 10 qualifying times in the country. "We had a good team time."
The team event, judged according to the three fastest times posted by the team members, saw Thompson finish with a region-best time of 5:05.07.
Grand Prairie finished in a combined 4:46.98, while the Medicine Hat, Alta. fire department was the runner-up in 4:57.67.
For the rest of the summer, the team will train in Thompson before moving on to the nationals Sept. 3-6, armed with the knowledge that comes from having run the actual course for the first time this season.
"Everyone was really pleased with how they did," said Doran, noting that he exceeded last year's individual time by 13 seconds, while Armstrong and Angelstad were both six or seven seconds faster. "The new people ran really well."
Still, the team hasn't reached its peak yet.
"There's lots of areas where we could still improve," said Doran. "We have an indication of where our strengths and weaknesses are."
