Firefighters from across the region and as far away as Florida faced off Saturday in the final day of the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge.
Firefighters paired off in teams to compete in Saturday's relay and tandem challenge, which is designed to reflect real-life scenarios they may face.
The competition is billed as "the toughest two minutes in sports" and rightfully so, said Myron Boggess, a Charleston firefighter and president of the local union.
"You're using muscles in this event that [most] athletes don't even use," Boggess said.
As part of the challenge, firefighters lugged a 42-pound fire hose up five flights of stairs, drove a steel beam five feet along the ground with a sledgehammer, zigzagged 140 feet along a slalom course, pulled a water-filled fire hose 75 feet and knocked down a target with the nozzle, and dragged a 175-pound mannequin another 100 feet all while wearing 50 pounds of rescue gear.
About 190 firefighters from Charleston, Nitro, Dunbar, Wheeling, Huntington and from several volunteer departments and neighboring states competed in the two-day event at the steps of the state Capitol.
The event also brought in competitors from Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina.
Boggess said the most difficult part of the challenge isn't the physical part, but the anxiety and anticipation before the course.
David Bowman, a veteran competitor from Charlotte, agrees.
For most competitors, the most difficult part of the race is the end dragging a 175-pound dummy, but it's really the moments before the race that are the hardest.
"It's the anxiety and you want to have a clean run," Bowman said.
Bowman is a three-time Grand National Champion. He began competing in the challenge about 10 years ago.
"I've been hooked ever since," he said.
He's been to nine challenges this year, and is doing his best to take home another title in Las Vegas this year.
Charleston was the 16th stop in the event's 25-city tour. The tour began in April in Ohio and has traveled to North Carolina, New Mexico, Colorado, California, and Kentucky among several other states.
The tour will continue to crisscross the nation before hitting its final stop Las Vegas for the Worlds Challenge in November.
Thousands of firefighters from across the nation and from Europe and Canada will compete in the 12-day event for the title of World's Champion.
This weekend was the first time the challenge has come to West Virginia, but event organizers promise it will not be the last.
Trey Hunt, the challenge's operations manager, said organizers are tentatively scheduled to come back to Charleston Aug. 19-21, 2010, to coincide with the Jet Ski races.
Boggess said next year he would like to see more local departments come out for the event, in addition to holding a corporate challenge for area residents.
"Let the public give it a try, and let them get an idea of what it is like to do our job," he said.
Friday and Saturday's challenge also will be aired on Versus TV. An airdate has not been announced, Samantha Carney, with the CVB, said.