Queenstown’s Gavin Mason wasn’t mucking around in Auckland last Saturday.
The Queenstown Airport Rescue firey smashed out the 51-stair Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge in 10 minutes, 48 seconds, putting him in second place overall, and less than a minute behind winner Ben Smith, of Auckland Airport Rescue Fire Service, who finished in 9.31.
For his efforts, Mason, 42, also won his age group.
Not bad for a man who was rushed to Dunedin Hospital a couple of weeks after the 2018 challenge, barely able to walk, having been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease, something he describes as a ‘‘wee speedhump in life’’.
‘‘The next year I went back and punched out a really good time — quicker than I did on Saturday,’’ he says.
As for his training regime?
It doesn’t involve custard squares and cheese rolls, he quips.
‘‘I personally train up Queenstown Hill with a weighted vest and just do numerous walks up there, as fast as you can.’’
Queenstown volunteer firey Claire Jones, however, says she didn’t have time to do any specific training for her second crack at the stair challenge.
Gut-buster: Queenstown volunteer fireys Claire Jones, left, and her wife Holly Aldred after the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge
Earlier this month the 35-year-old qualified to compete in world champs after a gut-busting performance at the United Fire Brigades Association’s National Firefighter Challenge.
Comprising five ironman-type events, Jones says training for that’s been quite different to what she’d normally do for the Sky Tower challenge.
‘‘It was only two weeks after all of the combat events, so there was no chance to really switch the training over, so I was just hopeful it transferred.’’
And that it did, something Jones says she’s ‘‘bloody glad of’’, having won her age group in a time of 13.36 and finishing third woman overall.
Meantime Frankton vollie Jamie Harris, 49, entered in the ‘firefighter of steel’ category, finished in 27.37.
This year’s event, a fundraiser for Leukemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand, has raised more than $1.5 million.
