Sybrand Bleeker from Amsterdam

Hello there! My name is Sybrand Bleeker and I’ve been a fire fighter for over 7 years in the Amsterdam Fire Brigade.

When I'm not busy at the fire station I love to do all kinds of sports. I am particularly passionate about mountain biking (even though we don’t have any mountains in Holland!) and I’m a keen runner. I love trail running and also doing survival runs – these are a mixture of trail running and obstacles – pretty tough, but great fun!

I’ve competed in the Games before – two years ago I took part in the Ultimate Firefighter event in New York, it was a really wonderful experience! This year, I decided to do the long distance orienteering; I am looking forward to doing something different in Belfast!

I am actually travelling over to Northern Ireland two weeks before the Games – my girlfriend and I are having a little holiday and will be biking on the west coast. We are aiming to do around 850 kilometres before we head to Belfast.

This will be our first visit to Northern Ireland and we are both really looking forward to it! We will try to bring some Dutch weather with us!