One area of professional development for State Fire Service firefighters is physical education. Firefighters serving in a shift system are required to complete at least one hour of sports activities during their shift. This is intended to improve officers’ physical fitness for the demanding profession of firefighting and minimize the possibility of injuries during rescue and firefighting operations.
Komenda Powiatowa PSP w Bolesławcu, in order to diversify the forms of sports activities, offered its firefighters a squash tournament. Thanks to the courtesy of Squashstacja, which has four squash courts, Bolesławiec firefighters had the opportunity on February 9—already for the third time—to compete in the informal championships of our headquarters.
Eight firefighters took part in the tournament. Since the main aim was to improve physical fitness, this year they played a round-robin format, with matches decided by two winning sets. “This meant that determining the champion took us almost three hours, and some participants had to play as many as 15 sets,” says junior brigadier Piotr Pilarczyk, press officer of the Komenda Powiatowa PSP w Bolesławcu. “In addition to considerable skill, good fitness was also needed to win the tournament.”
Unbeatable and winning every match was Piotr Induła (thus defending last year’s title). After a hard-fought competition, second place went to Damian Śliwiński, who suffered one defeat in the tournament, against the champion, and won six matches (but against the players who finished third and fourth—P. Pilarczyk, Ł. Musiał—only 2–1).
“We thank Squashstacja for helping organize the tournament. The next tournament will be held next year,” say the Bolesławiec firefighters. “Perhaps with a larger field?”