I was at the II World Championship among juniors and the I International Tournament among students in St.-Petersburg, 27-29 of June.

The official results can be seen here and here.

In this post I’d like to introduce some impressions.

First of all, the weather.

This city’s climate is something special.

Rather cold wind at morning, than blinding sun afternoon and raining at evening.

On the second day of the competitions the sun had taken firm positions in the sky and its joint efforts with the wind made my face and bold red, seeking for some cappy-hat to cover.

Speaking of the place, I can say that St.-Petersburg is amazing city.

Its center consists of strictly planned streets and channels, and is full of previous centuries European architecture, while there is no house the same with anyone else.

As for the sport venue – it was provided by the St-Petersburg University of the State Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia.

The University itself is imaginably equipped. Classes with 3D modulators, videocommunication nets through over the country, electronic registrators in the library… Not any Russian educational body in emergencies field may show these things, I guess.

And at the stadium the main thing is the training tower.

There can be no effective training in Fire and Rescue Sport without it. And the 12 years old boy from the South Korea, who had to compete in youngers group of the Juniors Championship, had his first practice with climbing a tower by a hook-ladder only on the day before the competition. Because there is no special venue in Korea yet.

There more surprising that boy showed himself rather good and fast. If he will exercise well the special technique of fast climbing, he can be among the best, I think.

…Except the venue, the University provided the stuff: all kinds of personnel and fans. Those, divided by countries and educational bodies they had to support, had their own competition and the main judge was the great woman, who is responsible for the moral and psychological attitudes among cadets. She was responsible for the opening-closing programs too and I think she managed pretty well.

Also as fans – teams were very grateful for their support.

…The first competition was climbing the tower with hook-ladders. The tower has three floors but the last one is considered to be the fourth, because the first one is the 20sm high wall-ledge.

In juniors competition all had to reach the second floor so they didn’t raise ladders sitting on sills. The youngers were to climb ladders already fastened, senior groups brought ladders with them running.

Students competition was run under the adults rules. So they raised up to the fourth floor.

The best result among students was showed by the golden champion of the previous Junior Championship in Fire and Rescue Sport Ruslan Hubetsov – 13,40 seconds from the starting point.

But while semi-final he didn’t raise further then the second floor so his result remains the best in this exercise while the competition but shown in prime-runs. Rather usual situation for this sport. That’s one of the reasons of double scoring in first two types of competition – climbing a tower and the 100-meters obstacle course. These exercises bring scores both for individuals and teams while the firefighters relay-race and the fire-attack deployment have scores only for teams.

… I remember the happiness of young Jan Gashek from the Czech Republic who became the third in junior group. He was included into the Czech team only some days before the journey. And the next day he became the first in obstacle course… and I also remember the eyes of 15 years old Stanislav Titorenko from the Russian team, who became the World Champion in climbing a tower.

The guy had his medal and prize among hundreds of voices crying the glory, from the hands of the Deputy Minister of Russian EMERCOM Gen-Col. Alexander Chupriyan (he is the vice-president of the International Sport Federation of Firefighters and Rescuers while the head of Russian EMERCOM Cen. Sergey Shoigu is its President and he was that who should conduct the ceremony but he was back to Moscow under the service situation). I doubt he will ever forget that moment…

…According to the firefighters relay-race I’ll mention the Korean teams. They were from the Seoul International University and Police Academy of Changvon.

Those were physically well developed guys, very persistent and conscientious. And it was evident that if Korean guys would be trained and would have more appropriate for such competitions athletic skills – they would become among the best…

…I think special thanks must go to sponsors of the teams and competitions. By their means bright uniforms of Russian, Czech, Kazakh, Estonian, especially Ukrainian teams (the last became the golden winner) beautifully played their colors in multy-colorful surrender. And also sponsors provided spectators with the show of eco-washing a jeep (that means without water) or extinguishing the fire by some small ball. Which than a showman flowed up in his own hand demonstrating that nothing hurt him.