By Elizabeth Evans
The York Dispatch
YORK, Pa. — A year ago, York City firefighter Mike Anderson made a pledge to his partner in the Firefighter Combat Challenge:
“I promised him we’d be back on the (winners’) podium,” Anderson said.
The 52-year-old firefighter delivered on his vow last week.
He and his partner, Erie Fire Chief Bruce Eicher, took first place Thursday in the tandem event for World Challenge XVI, held in Las Vegas. The men competed in the 50-plus age division and finished the grueling course in 1 minute, 44 seconds.
Known as “the toughest two minutes in sports,” the Firefighter Combat Challenge starts with a run to the top of a five-story tower while wearing 45 pounds of equipment and carrying 42 pounds of hose. Competitors must run back down the steps, then swing a mallet into a 160-pound steel beam until it moves five feet.
Finally, they must carry a hose through a 75-foot-long course of cones and drag a 185-pound dummy backward for 100 feet to the finish line.
“All year we’ve been waiting for this moment,” Anderson said. “We’re actually the world record-holders now. It’s just amazing.”
National champs, too: Already the 2007 U.S. National champions for the event, the pair had something to prove at this year’s World Challenge, where about 1,200 firefighters from as far away as New Zealand and South Africa competed.
“I’m gonna tell you right now, I was nervous because we know what happened last year,” Anderson said.
Anderson and Eicher finished second in their tandem category in 2006 because Anderson fell while running the course, causing them to lose precious time, he said. This time, there were no mistakes.
“It was a perfect run,” he said.
Making it even better was the fact that they competed next to a pair of massive firefighters -- one about 6-feet-7, the other 6-feet-2, he said. (Anderson is 5-feet-8 and weighs in at 160 pounds.)
Won the gold: In addition to bragging rights, Anderson said, he and Eicher will be given gold world-championship rings.
“They’re pretty nice. They’re gold with a diamond in the middle,” Anderson said. “Our names are going to be on the rings.”
He said he initially wanted to memorialize his win in a different — more permanent — way.
“I was thinking about getting a tattoo, but I think a world-championship ring is good enough,” he said, laughing. “I don’t wear much jewelry, but I’d probably wear that.”
Anderson spoke with The York Dispatch Friday morning while sitting in the Las Vegas airport. He confessed he hadn’t slept at all Thursday night because he was “so keyed up,” but he didn’t sound a bit tired.
“Right now, I feel about 29,” he said. “I’ll probably crash when I get home.”
Other wins: Anderson took fifth place in his age division in the world challenge’s individual competition, which he said “was probably my worst run of the year.”
The weekend of Oct. 13, he finished second in the individual category at the U.S. National Championship in Atlanta.
He and Eicher took first place for tandem at the U.S. National Championship in Atlanta, completing the course in about 1 minute, 45 seconds.
Anderson said competing isn’t all about winning. It’s also about meeting fellow firefighters and encouraging each other to excel.
“We’re like a brotherhood,” he said.
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