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VANCOUVER, B.C. - On Saturday June 25th, 2011 forklift operators came together at the Cloverdale Agriplex in Surrey, B.C. to compete in the 14th Annual B.C. Championship Forklift Rally.The event drew competitors from as far away as Washington State and in addition to obstacle courses that tested operator's best practices and forklift skills they also had a chance to try their hand at Forklift Bowling, Basketball & Soccer.
In addition to the competition there were side attractions to entertain the spectators as the day progressed. The team from Johnston Equipment (Raymond) were grilling up smokies on the barbeque, Adecco Employment brought out a bouncy castle for the kids, a few of the BC Lions cheerleaders came out to pose for pictures with spectators and the Harding Motorsports Race Car was also on site.
This year also featured the "Magic Forklift" RFID Safety System (as profiled in
Forkliftaction.com) with the owner and system inventor, Rick Shervey offering the judging team a $100 prize to the winner of a "Judges Bowl-Off" competition after the official competition had completed.
John Gilder, General Manager of Forklift Rally commented "Normally when we are finalizing the scoring a few people will ask, how long until the Awards Ceremony as even 10 minutes can seem like an eternity. This year as we tallied up the winners all we could hear was the cheering for the "Judges Bowl-Off"!
In the Counterbalanced division Randy Langwell of AmeriCold took first place. "Randy has been coming up from Washington State for a number of years to compete and has always done well but until now had not made it to the winners circle. This year he was on his game and passed right by second and third to take first place." said Dan Beer, CMHDS President & Rally Co-Founder.
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In the Narrow Aisle Reach Truck Division, James Ralphs of London Drugs took first place. "James placed first in 2007, 2009 and now again in 2011. He seems to have this thing about winning every other year." joked Gilder.
In the Power Pallet Jack Division, Mark Chiccarelli of Wallace & Carey took the top position. Chiccarelli, another long time competitor has placed second and third in previous events and now has a first place trophy to make a complete set.
The event organizers, the Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society (CMHDS) have already announced next year's competition will take place on May 5th, 2012 and would like to thank all competitors, spectators and volunteers for making the event a success.
Forklifts were supplied by Johnston Equipment (Raymond), Harding Forklift (Yale) & Williams Machinery (Clark) and racking was supplied and setup by Johnston Equipment. All judges are certified trainers hailing from a variety of mobile equipment training companies including Pivot Training Services, NIS Training & DWM Unlimited.
About the B.C. Championship Forklift Rally
The B.C. Championship Forklift Rally began in 1997 as a venue to promote forklift skills and safety in a fun and competitive environment and is presented by the Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society (www.CMHDS.org), a registered non-profit industry association representing the Warehousing & Distribution community in British Columbia, Canada.
The event is held in partnership with WorkSafeBC (www.worksafebc.com), and sponsors include Johnston Equipment (www.johnstonequipment.com), East Penn Manufacturing (www.eastpenncanada.com), Harding Forklift Services Ltd. (www.hardingforklift.com), Williams Machinery (www.williamsmachinery.com), NIS Training (www.nistraining.com), Pivot Industrial Training Services (www.pivotservices.ca) and Adecco Employment Services (www.adecco.ca). | Forklift Bowling from the Columbia Forklift Challenge held March 8, 2011 |
Contact: John Gilder - Tel: 604-999-2979 - Email: Admin@ForkliftRally.com - Website: www.ForkliftRally.com
Photos from previous year's events are available for download from http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkliftrally/