Police Staff Sergeant Miguel Carranza of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Cordillera won a gold and a silver medal in the team and individual categories of the 10-kilometer cross country during the 2022 World Police and Fire Games (WPFG) in Rotterland, The Netherlands.
The 34-year-old Carranza, who was the lone representative from the CIDG-Cordillera/Police Regional Office-Cordillera, teamed up with Maciej Wojciechowski and Adam Thiel, two police officers from Poland, as the trio won gold in the team event.
“It was only during the registration that I came to know that we can team up with other foreign athletes in the team event. I tried looking for fellow Filipino police or fire officers who registered for the event but to no avail. So, I decided to partner with the Polish team,” Carranza said.
Carranza, who has joined and won hardcore ultra-trail runs in northern Luzon the past years, also competed in the individual event of the 10-kilometer cross country and clinched a silver medal.
The WPFG drew 10,000 participants who work in the police, fire, customs, and corrections departments around the world who participated in 60 sports events.
To recall, Carranza is the first active PNP member who joined and successfully completed the 166-kilometer Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race that started and finished in France crossing Italy and Switzerland in 2017.
The most decora-ted team from the 200-man Philippine contingent to the 2022 WPFG is the PNP taekwondo team that won 17 gold, 10 silver, and eight bronze medals.
Aside from Carranza, Master Sgt. Jan Vincent dela Peña of the PNP Aviation Security Group was one of the police officers who won more than one medal in karate. Dela Peña clinched a gold medal in individual kata under the 35 years old category; a silver in the individual sparring under the 85-kilogram category; and a bronze medal in the team sparring-black belt category. – Harley F. Palangchao
