SANDY MacQuarrie will represent Eglinton and Australia when he competes in a prestigious firefighting challenge this month.
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The British Firefighter Challenge, to be held at Leicester in England’s East Midlands, will test firefighters’ ability to perform high intensity exercises such as sprinting up stairs, dragging a heavy hose or rescuing a 70-kilogram mannequin.
And it’s made more difficult by the fact the competitors are wearing their heavy protective gear and breathing apparatus as they move through the tasks.
“When I line up at the starting line, every single time, I think why am I doing this?” Mr MacQuarrie admitted.
The Eglinton Rural Fire Service member, who hails originally from Prince Edward Island and spent 20 years in the fire service in his native Canada, last tested his competition skills at a world event in Las Vegas four years ago and has been training for months for this latest challenge.
“There will be 10 countries attending and I'm the only one from Australia,” he said. “I will be Team Australia.”
Over what he estimates will be somewhere between three-and-a-half minutes and three minutes and 45 seconds, Mr MacQuarrie will move straight from task to task without any chance to rest.
“It’s high intensity, short duration. It’s very power oriented,” he said.
“You never get a chance to catch your breath – that's the event.”
He has been working on strength, power and speed at Dedicated To Fitness in the lead-up to the challenge. As well, a simulated course has been set up at the fire hall at Eglinton.
“The crew from Eglinton comes out and trains with me,” he said. “We call them the combat crew. Every Wednesday and Saturday, we spend a lot of time on the course.”
He said the brigade’s senior captain Mark Bennett and deputy captain Matt Nelson had been very supportive as he prepared.
And he’s had some help close to home as well - from his wife, Dr Caroline Robertson, who has previously conducted research at Charles Sturt University looking at brain activity during exercise.
Mr MacQuarrie, who is 53, will be competing in the over 50 division and his goal is simple: to finish on the podium.
He will leave Australia in mid-July and enjoy some travel before the big event on July 29.
“My challenge will be to try to maintain my fitness through the travel,” he said.
Mr MacQuarrie, who has taught in the paramedic program at Charles Sturt University Bathurst for five years, recently received his Australian citizenship.
