Four Troy firefighters are in Montgomery today to compete in the finals of the Scott Safety World Firefighter Combat Challenge.

Justin Gray, Aubrey Brown. Ethan Brown and Clay Berry competed in the qualifying round on Thursday and made it to the finals despite it being the team’s first outing.

“We did it on a whim,” Gray said. “I looked at these guys and asked them how confident they were in themselves and they took the challenge.”

The team was only the fiftieth best time of the day out of the 54 teams that qualified, but Gray said that he’s proud of the team for making it to the finals in their first competition.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” Gray said. “This was the first time ever seeing the course and we had no preparation. We just went to the trial run on Monday and then put it to it. It takes guts to get out in front of crowd doing something you’ve never done.”

The team found out on Monday just how tough the competition is. The relay includes six firefighting-related tasks that must be completed in two minutes to qualify for the finals.

“It has been called the toughest two minutes in sports,” Gray said.

The team wouldn’t have qualified if Monday’s run had been the qualifier, but the team finished with six seconds to spare on Thursday.

The first leg of the relay is to hoist a 45-pound apartment hose pack up 5 flights of stores. The next leg has a firefighter hoisting a 52-pound pack up and back down the stairs. The third object to be hoisted up is a 105-pound Keiser sled.

The competition then shifts to the “serpentine run” around cones that are set up. The final two portions require dragging a fire hose 75 feet and then a 105-pound dummy 106 feet.

Gray and the team are excited to be going to finals in their first competition.

“To be able to be in the finals as a first-time thing says we’re moving in the right direction,” gray said.

The finals will be held at 1:30 p.m. today in downtown Montgomery in front of the Renaissance hotel and the event is free to the public. It will also be live-streamed on ESPN3.com.

Gray thanked the City of Troy, Casey Propane and Troy Fire Chief Buford Stephens for their support.

“It’s phenomenal the way the city backs us,” Gray said. “And we have a department of guys standing behind us. It’s pretty special. We couldn’t do this without them.”