With a display of grit, stamina and precision, three Bitou municipality women have ranked at the top of their game as firefighters in SA.
They are part of a group of firefighters who won medals at the SA Toughest Firefighter Alive Open Challenge in Mossel Bay at the weekend.
Aliyaah Arnolds, 27, Dazzle Jacobs, 27, and Lumka Ndabeni, 37, won silver medals for a gruelling relay race that saw them carry an 80kg dummy body, drag and pack six lengths of fire hoses, run along the beach and do other activities — all under six minutes.
The competition is a qualifier for the international competition, World Firefighters Games, where firefighters compete in more than 50 sports, challenges and industry-related activities.
These range from rescue simulations and firehouse cookout competitions to poker and darts tournaments.
Arnolds, who still had a hoarse voice from the challenge on Monday, said the competition had been tough but she was grateful to have won a silver medal on her first try.
“At the competition it’s not about being male or female, it’s about being a firefighter.
“We are given six minutes to complete the relay challenge and four minutes to rest, while the men are given five minutes to complete the same relay challenge and five minutes to rest.”
Arnolds quit her studies in her third year at Nelson Mandela University to join the Bitou firefighting team.
She said getting a silver medal had been beyond her expectations.
“The relay is a four-member challenge, but one of our members could not join us at the last minute, so we were not hopeful.
“However, another firefighter did a stage for us and we won after only aiming to finish the race,” she said.
On the training needed to do the challenge, Arnolds said preparations had come from the rest of the Bitou team.
“We had our own simulation that we did with the men. It was tough but it helped,” she said.
Event organiser Mark Smith said the competition had started 10 years ago, but the weekend event had been the seventh one held due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Smith said Mossel Bay was an ideal location to host the competition.
“We had 175 firefighters from 25 local and district municipalities,” he said.
The firefighters were judged on eight categories.
The Garden Route district municipality men’s team came in second in the open team competition.
Emile Conrad, from George, was first in the 35-39 age group, with Gqeberha’s Neo Leholo, who is stationed at the Chief Dawid Stuurman Airport, coming second in the individual competition.
Conrad, the world’s 10th-best firefighter and the previous holder of the SA Toughest Firefighter Alive title holder, lost to West Rands’ Manie Gouws.
Heinrich Leslie, was second in the 30-34 category and David Van Niekerk won the 45-49 category.
Both are from the Garden Route district municipality.
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