Czech Firefighters Beat Competition from Around the World
Czech firefighters achieved an extraordinary success at the jubilee 20th edition of the international rope rescue team competition GRIMPDAY 2026, held in the Belgian city of Namur and around the historic city of Dinant. The Czech team, Fire Brigade Czech Republic, representing the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic (HZS ČR) and supported by SINGING ROCK, prevailed in the new extreme competition format GRIMPDAY XX-TREME and defeated a strong field of world-class competitors in the final standings.
This year's competition was exceptional not only for its anniversary, but above all for the new GRIMPDAY XX-TREME format, designed for ten elite teams from around the world. Simply being selected among these top global teams was already a tremendous achievement. The extreme segment featured teams from Hungary, Poland, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, Romania, Switzerland, France, Japan, and the Czech Republic.
36 Hours of Deployment
The organizers' goal was to bring the competition as close as possible to real-life rope rescue operations. Over a continuous 36-hour deployment, teams completed ten demanding rescue scenarios. Callouts to individual tasks mirrored real incidents — teams were notified by phone, received the location via GPS coordinates, and upon arrival the team commander took over the situation from the incident commander.
The competition scenarios took place primarily in the rugged terrain of the rocky Meuse river valley. Firefighter-climbers had to execute rescues from cave systems, inaccessible cliff faces, ruins, a zip line, and a bridge pylon. Their work was complicated by cold and rainy weather, slippery mud, sharp rock edges, a lack of natural anchor points, night operations, and mounting physical and mental fatigue.
Speed alone was not the deciding factor. Judges also evaluated the quality of care provided to casualties, communication with patients, safety, tactical team leadership, technical execution of transport, space management, overall operational fluency, and each team's fair play. The rescued persons themselves also played a significant role in scoring, rating the comfort, safety, and conduct of each team.
Extraordinary Success
The Czech team excelled thanks to outstanding technical preparedness, physical endurance, cohesion, team spirit, and excellent performance across all disciplines. A critical factor in their success, however, was the exceptionally high quality of care provided to rescued persons. As a result, the Czech team built a substantial points lead over second-place France and third-place Switzerland.
Saturday also featured a sports challenge open to all competing teams. It included movement through demanding terrain, raft paddling, a zip line, a tower run, via ferrata, rappelling, transit through a river bed and flooded underground passage, a rope ladder in a waterfall, and a stretcher carry. The Czech team posted the fastest time among all 34 competing teams.
The Czech Republic was represented by: Tomáš Saifrt, Petr Urbanovský, Lukáš Němec, Vojtěch Hrubý, Ondřej Ďoubal and Zdeněk Jirouš. Photo and video documentation throughout the competition was handled by experienced documentarian Michal Fanta.
The success of the Czech firefighters at GRIMPDAY 2026 is a significant confirmation of the high professional level of Czech firefighters specializing in rope rescue techniques. We are proud that SINGING ROCK works closely with these elite firefighters and that the knowledge and skills shared at the POLYGON Singing Rock contributed to this unique achievement.
Congratulations once again and hats off. Gentlemen, you are the best of the best.
