Projo Fitness Blog

By Donita Naylor
Journal staff writer

Three Rhode Island State Police troopers have swept a national law-enforcement fitness contest, taking six first-place awards in the 2009 LawFit Trooper Challenge in Fairfax, Va.

Competing for Rhode Island were G. Thomas Chabot and Meredith Zenowich, both assigned to the Hope Valley barracks, and Joy Younkin, who helps teach recruits at the State Police Training Academy, in Foster.

Each had to compete in all of the following: one-repetition maximum bench press, timed sit-up test, sit-and-reach felxibility test, pullups, 200-yard agility course, and a 1.5-mile run.

The agility course includes scaling a brick wall, climbing over and under obstacles and through a window, climbing stairs, identifying the suspect from a description, dragging a 150-pound victim 5 yards to safety, handcuffing the suspect, running, and hitting a target with a laser to stop the clock.

Zenowich and Younkin were the top female team overall after placing first and second among female troopers. Chabot and Younkin won first place for a mixed team, and Chabot placed second overall among male troopers.

Chabot and Younkin each ran 1.5 miles the fastest in their gender groups.

The eighth annual competition took place Oct. 15-17 at The National Center for Public Safety Fitness at George Mason University in Fairfax. The center was established to improve fitness and health among law enforcement officers, whose jobs are often sedentary but require bursts of extreme exertion.

Last year, 62 members of law enforcement competed, 6 of them women. Younkin and Zenowich competed last year.

 Tags  fitness Rhode Island State Police

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