Firefighter Brian turns on the power
Thursday, 25 September 2008
‘Big’ Brian Coombes, who won gold in the powerlifting competition at the World Firefighters’ Championships in Liverpool.
FOLLOWING the recent success of Team GB at both the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing, a Templepatrick firefighter has scooped a gold medal at the World Firefighters' Championships.
‘Big' Brian Coombes travelled to Liverpool for the bi-annual event, taking part in the powerlifting competition.
Fending off 43 other competitors from 17 different countries Brian took gold in an event highly prized among the firefighting fraternity.
The powerlifting event sees competitors complete four separate tests - a squat, benchpress and deadlift.
Brian said he only heard about the games in October last year, but has been a keen weightlifter since he was 14-years-old. He competed in the Northern Ireland Championships in June, winning his class.
He said: "It was massive, I can only compare it to the Commonwealth Games in terms of size. It is taken very seriously, you see all these groups of guys from Brazil and Venezuela and Canada walking about all over the city with their matching tracksuits."
Athletes from 43 countries compete in 73 different events, all of which follow a similar vein as that of the Olympics, such as track and field events, rowing, boxing and, of course, weightlifting.
“They do have a specialist event - The World's Toughest Firefighter - where you use hoses, ladders, axes and you have to carry dummies, but the rest of the events are normal sports. They also have darts."
The event is 20-years-old, but has received little media attention in Northern Ireland. Brian said that he was unaware of anyone else from the NIFRS going to the games, but when he returned discovered that two firefighters from Enniskillen were there, competing in rowing and boxing.
It is held every two years - last time it was in Hong Kong. Brian decided to go to this year's event due to its proximity as he has had to fund everything himself due to lack of support from the NIFRS.
“I'm hoping to get some sponsorship from businesses around Northern Ireland for the event in 2010 because it's being held in Korea," he said.
Brian, who has only been a firefighter for four years, works at the Whitla Street station in Belfast.
