At the end of April 2024, the Spanish city of Seville hosted the 7th edition of the international Rescue Great Day competition, which was once again attended by the Rescue Czech Republic team. This prestigious event brings together rescuers from around the world to share their experiences and showcase their skills in rescue and helping the injured.
(Team consisting of: Jiří Hrabě, Václav Kverka, Pavel Kotouč, Roman Kešner a Martin Kadlec)
The Czech team excelled in several disciplines (e.g. rescue from a hole, rescue from heights and first aid) and thanks to their professional performance, they finished in 5th place overall (in a competition of 35 teams).
"We are extremely proud that we could participate in Rescue Great Day 2024 and represent the Czech Republic," said Václav Kverka, trainer from the POLYGON Singing Rock training centre for work at heights. "It was a great opportunity to learn from the best teams and showcase our own skills and knowledge."
Václav Kverka described the course of the competition in more detail.
"Before the start of the competition we could get a joker in a climbing discipline, which could replace one failed task in the competition. One rescuer had to ascend the vertical anchor points 1 m away in the shortest possible time and then climb down to the descending ropes over a re-anchor, where he passed the baton to the second climber, who proceeded in the opposite direction.
The first discipline of the competition was to retrieve a technician trapped in the spillway inlet of an empty dam. The access hole was 40 cm in size and inside the technician had to be dressed in a harness without touching the ground, hauled 5 meters to the inner spillway and then pulled out of the hole.
For the second task, a paraglider suspended from the crown of the dam was waiting for us. The goal was to haul him and his seat up to a safe place.
The last task of the first day was to haul a stretcher uphill through rugged rocky terrain, 10 metres by single-rope technique and then 60 metres by double-rope, with the rescuers having to be secured the whole time.
We started Saturday by hauling an injured person across the dry river to the retractable roof of a stadium and then we had to lower ourselves inside with all the equipment so that nothing was left on the roof.
The next task followed with the injured woman on the middle terrace of the building. One team member lowered ropes from the roof to the ground so that the others could climb up to the injured person and get her on a stretcher to the ground.
The end of Saturday belonged to a Tyrolean traverse. Hauling the injured person 15 meters and then an approximately 60-meter-long Tyrolean to transport her to the parking lot over the edge of the ground floor building.
On Sunday, to warm us up, we had a rescue over a knot.
The second task of the day was to install ropes into the roof truss structure and then move through the roof of the production hall to the opposite wall of the building, where we extricated an injured person using a stretcher and two lowering systems to a predetermined location near the starting point.
The third task was to remove a casualty from the window of a false gate constructed from scaffolding and lower the casualty on a stretcher into the designated area. We had to do this without contacting a wall decorated with light bulbs.
At the end of the competition we had a rescue from a bridge, where three rescuers climbed 50 meters with equipment onto the bridge and from there they lowered the injured person in a stretcher down so that no equipment was left on the bridge except for two ropes prepared by the organizers."
Václav adds: "Rescue Great Day 2024 was a fantastic experience for us. We learned a lot of new things and made contacts with people from all over the world. We're sure it will help us improve our training at Polygon."
Czech rescuers made a great name for themselves at Rescue Great Day 2024 in Seville and showed the world that they are among the world's top professionals.
Congratulations!
