Looking back at Rescue Great Day 2026

Rescue Great Day is a prestigious international rope rescue competition traditionally held in Seville, Spain – a city local organizers jokingly call the "city of rescue." As in the previous year, the Czech Republic was represented by a team of rescuers supported by Singing Rock, made up mostly of members of the Railway Fire and Rescue Service (HZS Správy železnic).

It is remarkable how much support the event receives. The city council, the regional fire and rescue directorate, and the national association of professional and volunteer rescue units all take part in organizing it. Thanks to this support, competitors get access to fascinating locations, often right in the city center, that they would otherwise never be able to visit.

Rescue Great Day lasts four days in total. The first day is traditionally dedicated to team registration and a voluntary warm-up task for individuals. This year it involved completing a rope course using equipment provided by the organizers. At the same time, professional workshops and presentations by manufacturers of climbing, rescue, and other specialized equipment took place. The following three days were devoted to the competition itself – one day in a natural environment and two days in urban or industrial locations.

This year's edition, held at the turn of April and May, was significantly more demanding than the previous year. The organizers prepared physically and technically harder disciplines and tightened the time limits for completing them.

The Czech team lined up in the same formation as last year: Pavel Kotouč and Jirka Hrabě as climbers, Roman Kešner and Martin Kadlec as anchor riggers, Anička in the role of the "victim", and Viktor Pešek as team leader. The expedition was completed by Ondra Vítko, who did not take part in the competition itself but documented the entire event as a photographer.

Over the three competition days, teams faced a total of 11 disciplines. One of the most interesting was a rescue at a football stadium. The task was to build an approximately 200-meter-long Tyrolean traverse across the entire stadium and transport an injured person from the pitch to the very last row of the stands. The discipline was demanding not only technically, due to the considerable rope stretch involved, but also organizationally. Movement across the grass was prohibited, so competitors had to move through the interior of the stadium, where not all passages were open.

The technically and physically most demanding task can be considered the discipline in the amusement park. The "victim" played an injured maintenance worker trapped inside a ceremonial entrance gate. The only way in was along a diagonally stretched steel guy-wire cable that stabilized the structure. The team had to find a suitable way up using prusik knots and then safely lower the injured person to the ground. It was an extraordinarily interesting discipline, but its difficulty was very high. The Czech team ran out of time here, resulting in a significant loss of points.

A total of 34 teams from 21 countries took part in this year's edition. The Czech team Rescue Czech Republic finished in 21st place. The result was mainly affected by exceeding the time limit in two disciplines, which meant zero points for those tasks. Still, it was a valuable experience and an opportunity to test their skills against other rescue teams from around the world.

We thank all team members for representing the Czech Republic and wish them the best in putting everything they took away from this year's competition to good use in future editions.