Interview with Mr. Hartmut Bastisch, the President of the Sport Technical Committee of the Firefighters Association of the Brandenburg Land (Leiter Fachausschuss Wettbewerbe Land Brandenburg), the Competition Director for the Fire Sport competitions in CTIF.

1. The year 2011 is almost over now and the World Championship in Cottbus was the highlight of this year. What do you think about the World Championship in your home country?

- Dear readers and athletes, it would take a long time and even more space on this web-site to analyze the World Championship 2011 in Cottbus. I am still so thrilled I can hardly give you a short evaluation.

I take an active part in Fire Sport since 1973, or rather for 38 years, and in my opinion the World Championship in Fire and Rescue Sport in Cottbus was the absolute highlight in the history of Fire and Rescue sport in Germany. We were able to experience the World Championship with a record participation of 18 teams from 17 countries (the second German team was the 19^th and competed without considering its results). It was the first time that Fire Sport in Germany experienced such an unprecedented enthusiasm.

The performance of hook ladder climbing in the center of Cottbus, right in front of the town hall caused a big wave of enthusiasm. The desirability of climbing the three storied training tower attracted a great audience, not only on this day but also on the following days. They wanted to watch the other disciplines as well.

In Cottbus we witnessed a lot of drama and extraordinary achievements of the athletes. Our German team contributed a great part to this. Carried away by the wave of enthusiasm of the audience, our German athletes in Fire Sport were able to surpass themselves. They reached new German records in the disciplines except for the 100-meter obstacle course. As to the relay race 4 x 100 m, the records have been beaten by three German relays and also in the discipline fire-attack deployment the two German teams reached new German records.

Unfortunately the excellent results were only sixth best because four teams have beaten the previous record. Only 1 second separated our friendly national team from the gold medal.

During the last 4 years the team would have won the World Championship with this time. But also our athletes who participated in individual sports were amazing. Both team results, the one of the six best athletes in hook ladder climbing and in the 100-meter obstacle course, have never been reached by a German athlete in World Championship before. I would like to point out Tom Gehlert in this context as well. He set a new and incredible German record with his 14,30 sec. in hook ladder climbing and he shortened the distance to world’s best athletes.

In this context you have to consider that German amateur athletes compete with professional athletes from East Europe. The achievements of the German team are even higher to rank in this context.

2. We are facing the next big event in 2012 – the German Championship. What

experience did you get out of the World Championship which you can use for

planning the German Championship?

- You cannot compare the German Championship in Fire and Rescue Sport and the World Championship in the field of organization. Of course we want to draw a conclusion based on the experience with the organization and execution of the World Championship 2011. But next year the logistic requirements on accommodation and meals will be completely different when there will be ca. 2000 participants. We already have started the preparation in 2010 and after the evaluation of the World Championship we reached a new level of the organization.

The timetable for the Championship is arranged and now we will maximize our efforts in relation to finding room for the participants and the referees.

3. The hook ladder climbing in the center of Cottbus was a crowd puller. Do you plan something similar for the German Championship?

- The character and the operational structure of the German Championship are planned in another way, so that the great effort and the higher costs of building the tower in the city center has to be taken into account. The work group reached the decision to build the training tower 2012 in the Radstadion Cottbus and to combine the finals in hook ladder climbing with the opening ceremony of the Championship in fire sport. This alternative should also lead to a great atmosphere and to a great attendance, similar to the atmosphere hook ladder climbing created this year.

4. It was the first election of the best athlete in Fire Sport in this year. How do you rate such elections? How do you think about the mixture of a public- and an expert

voting? What do you think about the winners (Diana Breuer, Tom Gehlert, Team

Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the national team)?

- I think the election of the “Athlete of the Year in Fire Sport” is a good cause. It is a tribute to the athletes and their achievements. Naturally after the first election there are some questions which have to be clarified; especially the circumstances of the awarding ceremony of the winners and the compilation of the list of candidates. This year’s winners have not been a great surprise for me because they belong to the very top in 2011.

5. In the field of Fire-attack Deployment there are more and more new competitions as we can see. The other way round there is nearly only the German-Cup for those athletes who participate in all disciplines. What do you think: How can it be made more attractive to offer more diversion in this field? What could be done towards the shortage of new blood?

- I think this question describes the problem very well but I don’t know for sure if our schedule leaves room for more contests.

We have such a variety and array of top-class contests in East Germany so that the athletes who compete in one discipline do rarely have a free weekend. From May to October they are nearly every week on the road. We have 4 German-Cups, 1 Championship for Fire Fighters and the best athletes participate in the World Championship and the CTIF-Olympiads.

Additionally there are Championships at local and land level at intervals of 2 years.

Despite all enthusiasm, you have to consider that most teams only practice on the weekends because the athletes come from different regions. So when should we train new young athletes when there would be even more contests.

I also want to say that our top-athletes sometime want to compete in the Fire-attack

deployment with their home fire brigade.

6. You always hear about changes in the regulations. Is there something planned or

even a decision reached in this matter? Will the regulations adjust to the

international ones?

- These days the CTIF-committee for contests talks internationally about the revision of the CTIF-regulations for sport contests. The revised version will be submitted to the executive board of the CTIF in spring. It does not generally differ from the German regulations of 2006 but international trends will be included which also will find their way into the German regulations. The German revised version will also be introduced in 2012. We already tested parts of it in 2011 during the World Cup in Fire-attack Deployment in Cottbus – with success.

7. Last question: What do you think about the development of fire sport in 2012 and what are your highlights for this year, apart from the German Championship?

- Apart from the German Championship in Fire and Rescue Sport in Cottbus (25.-29.07. 2012) my highlights will be the 4 German-Cups, as every year and the World Championship in Antalya (16.-21.10. 2012). Additionally there will be the preparation for the Olympiad of the CTIF 2012 in Mulhouse (14.-21.07. 2013) which means 2 committee meetings in Alsace France. And at the end of the year there will be the international conference of the ISFFR according to the World Championship 2013 in Seoul (South Chorea). Organizing my private life and my work life to avoid collisions means a great effort in this context.

The interview is kindly provided by Manuel Wittenburg, who maintains the web-site about Fire Sport in Germany (http://feuerwehrsportwettkampf.de/).