Creswick Fire Brigade’s senior running team may lack in numbers, but their dedication and positivity in the lead-up to the State Firefighter Championships certainly makes up for it.
Heading to Mooroopna to participate in the Urban Senior Firefighting Championships on Saturday 23 March, two-time participant Logan Hand will be lending a helping hand to the brigade’s newest recruit Charles Huang who will participate for the first time.
At just 18 years old, Logan has been an active member of the brigade for two years, following in the footsteps of his three family members who volunteer with Creswick, one being the Captain.
“I’ve been around the brigade my whole life and I’ve been marching with them for as long as I can remember. I always wanted to get involved as soon as I could,” Logan said.
“The Championships are a great opportunity to mix with different brigades. I really enjoy the camaraderie and the friends that you get to make, both in your own team and in others.
“I’m most looking forward to the ladder and cart events as they are a bit more interactive and challenging for me.”
The team hit the ground running early in the season, having started training twice a week from October with hopes to overcome their biggest challengers Osborne Park and Melton.
“We figured because we’re a new team, we should get in some good practice,” Logan said.
“While competitive, we’re all friends and it’s good fun. I’d really encourage people to give it a go. Everyone is supportive and it provides such great training with great people.”
22-year-old medical student Charles Huang has been a brigade member for only just over a year, but is already putting his best foot forward on the track.
“I always go into training with the mindset of wanting to better myself and to find ways to improve my technique. I really want to get stronger and faster,” Charles said.
“I wasn't very good at the ladder run initially. So, in the past few weeks, I've become really motivated to get better at doing it.
“I’m most looking forward to the cart events because it is such a team effort, and everyone has a role to play. It’s also really exhilarating to push a decently heavy cart down the track.”
As a small team of five, Charles said although they don’t have specialties like other teams, they have identified what they most need to work on and have been drilling that in at training.
“A few of us weren’t powerful enough yet for the cart event, so we practised that initial segment over and over again,” Charles said.
“What we found was with each iteration we could really refine our technique. For me, I needed to work on my hand grip on the handle and make that a smoother transition. But after several run-throughs, I was able to actually do what we wanted.”
“Instead of running out the entire cart and having to roll up the hoses again, we just focused on the areas that needed improvement and we’re really seeing results.”