ASSINIBOIA —Assiniboia volunteer firefighter Riley Malone will take part in the Saskatchewan FireFit Championship in Humboldt Aug 23-24. Malone just turned 29 and has been in Assiniboia and a member of the Assiniboia Fire Department for two years. He previously lived in Shaunavon and served for six years as a volunteer firefighter in that community.
“I have been competing in FireFit for three seasons now, having completed a total of six competitions so far with Humboldt being my seventh,” Malone says.
Malone says he competes along with his two friends from Shaunavon, Corey Fulaga and Clayton Greenlay, who started in 2022. The trio will be running in the FireFit National and World Finals in Kamloops, B.C. from Sept 25-29. From there, they will attend World Firefighting Challenge League Finals in Nashville, Tenn. Oct. 21-29.
“My fastest individual time is 1:32 but I am hoping to get below 1:30 by the end of the season. Me and my teammates have won a few medals through the years in relays. The ones that stand out to me the most are when we took home silver in the World Hybrid Relay Finals in 2022, as well as Randi Cowan from Regina, and myself, winning the Hybrid Tech 2 Relay at Nationals last year,” adds Malone.
Asked what inspires him Malone responds, “You’re always trying to better yourself physically and push yourself to set new personal bests. Also, you get to meet people from all over the country and the world running these events. “
Malone says his training takes place all year, starting the year right after the final competition.
“We go over our videos and how we felt running and build on our weaknesses throughout the winter in the gym. Once the snow melts and it starts warming up, we’ll move it to the more practical training with actual course time. We try to do that a couple days a week. We’re fortunate enough to have good friends from both Medicine Hat and Regina who let us come and train with them using their towers to make it more realistic,” says the Assiniboia firefighter.
Malone says that FireFit is a great event right from the people who operate it to the competitors.
“It’s a very welcoming community. Doesn’t matter your skill set or how fast you can go, everyone is cheering for everyone to do their best. I will say though that it is one of the hardest and physically demanding sports I have ever done. That’s why they call it the toughest two minutes in sport.”
The motto for FireFit is “You can never be too fit, too fast, too strong, be FireFit.” The FireFit Championships is a competition based on firefighting tasks commonly performed in emergencies.
The popularity of the FireFit Competition has grown over the past 25 years and visits every province in Canada. Broadcasts, aired on TSN, OLN and RDS, ensure FireFit has become known not only in Canada but worldwide. Competitors come from every province and territory in Canada as well as the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, England and the Middle East.
