FF Guggenberg: With passion and fun to the world championship title

The boys and girls of the Guggenberg group showed nerves as thick as fire hoses in both races in which they were crowned firefighter youth world champions. The stadium in Borgo Valsugana in the Trentino region (I) was a real cauldron in which 60 groups from 22 nations raced for the World Cup globe. Ultimately, it was passion that prompted the top performance. But a little luck was also involved – the two other Upper Austrian groups who just missed the podium can tell you all about that.

• More on the subject: Upper Austrians celebrate firefighter world championship title

“We are extremely proud of our young people. We never dreamed that our plan would work out like this,” said Peter Dorfinger and his fellow supervisors. With a flawless time of 36.34 on the obstacle course and 61.95 in the relay race, the young people left the competition behind. “We were nervous, but then we gave it our best and showed two great runs. It was just awesome,” said Verena Dorfinger and Emily Kalleitner immediately after the relay race. There was no stopping them in the stands either. “We were able to motivate the young people so much and knew that we had done a good job. Then we just had to wait and see how the other groups were doing,” said Peter Dorfinger immediately after crossing the finish line, suspecting that they would win the title.

Between joy and tears

One of the strongest competition groups traveled with the Austrian delegation itself. Bad Mühllacken was also considered a title contender in the mixed ranking. In the end, there was not much difference between triumph and tears. Only a few millimeters of the shoe of the Mühllackner “eight” protruded above the water ditch and the judges had to award penalty points. The frustration was great. Without mistakes, they would have secured the runner-up title behind Guggenberg. This meant that they finished eighth.

Bitter tears also flowed from the girls in the Mitteregg-Haagen-Sand group. A slip-up in the relay race shattered all their dreams of a title. Without mistakes, the runner-up title would have been within reach.

International encounter

The Guggenbergers showed the same passion when celebrating as they did during the race. After finally holding the world championship globe in their hands, the competitors celebrated exuberantly with their fans. In their ecstasy of joy, the Guggenbergers also swept along Fire Chief Robert Mayer, his deputy Michael Hutterer and State Fire Chief Michaela Langer-Weniger, who was particularly happy for the group from Mondeseeland: “It is impressive what camaraderie is lived here and what performances the young people have achieved on the dot.”

“I am proud of our young firefighters, who have demonstrated team spirit and solidarity. I was particularly impressed by the carefree and exuberant togetherness this week. There was so much joy and fun in the eyes of the young people, which motivates us for the future,” said Fire Chief Mayer.