BAGUIO CITY – A veteran international trail runner will be defending his cross country running gold medal during the 2025 World Police and Fire Games that will be held on June 27 to July 6, 2025 in Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America.
Aside from defending his gold medal in cross country running, Police Master Sergeant Miguel Carranza of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Baguio City Filed Unit will be joining the so-called stair race, a new event that will be part of the said prestigious competition.
World Police and Fire Games is an Olympic-style competition with the participation of thousands of athletes representing first responders from different countries. The participants include law enforcers, firefighters and emergency medical teams. The games are held biennially and typically have more than 60 sports in the program.
In 2023, Carranza joined the World Police and Fire Games held in Winnipeg, Canada where he emerged victorious and was able to bring home a gold medal for cross country running and a bronze medal for track and field.
Last year, he joined the 2024 Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc-Sur les Traces des Ducs de Saboie (UTMB-TDS) and 2024 Ultra Trail Monte Rosa, a 148-kilometer and 170-kilometer ultra trail running races that were held in Italian and Swiss Alps where he successfully finished the same which are among the toughest ultra tail race in the world usually being participated by elite trail runners.
Under the cross country running category, runners run a race in pen air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course which is typically 3-12 kilometers long may include surfaces of grass and earth passing through woodlands and open country that include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel roads and minor obstacles.
The stair race event is also known as tower running or vertical running which is a high intensity sport where competitors race upstairs, usually in skyscrapers.
He also plans to participate in an Orienteering event for the first time where it will be a trail event for him since he had always wanted to do the said sport. Orienteering is a competitive outdoor sport that involves using a map and compass to navigate through a series of points in unfamiliar terrain which he can somehow apply his endurance, map reading and land navigation skills that he acquired during his police basic training and special counter-insurgency training.
Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc. (ISRI), a subsidiary of the Davao-based Apex Mining Co., Inc., had been supporting Carranza’s participation to the aforesaid events over the past two years as part of its corporate social resistibility endeavors.
Carranza expressed his gratitude to ISRI and Apex for their continuous support to his participation in international trail running events, assuring that he will do his best to bring honor and pride not only to the PNP but also to those who bestow their trust and confidence and fully support his endeavor. By Dexter A. See
