A Different Story: Hiram Cerezo

March 31, 2013

Manuela Echeverri

"I know I am in the best shape of my life."

It is common to hear about CrossFitters who sign up for the Open just to measure their current fitness level. Most of these CrossFitters have no real aspirations to make it to Regionals.

But Hiram Cerezo is a different story.

After only having done CrossFit for five months, Cerezo signed up for the 2012 Open and placed 52nd in Latin America, qualifying him for Regionals. To his surprise, he placed top-10 there, and his desire to keep competing in the sport of CrossFit grew stronger.

Cerezo, head coach and owner of CrossFit TTC in Panama, always played sports as a child, but at age 13, realized his tall stature wasn’t enough to be good at basketball.

“With a few neighborhood kids, we started doing all sorts of training to gain strength, power, agility and be able to dominate the game better,” Cerezo says. “I think those were my first steps into CrossFit. We would do box jumps, jump rope, weightlifting, sprints, pull-ups, push-ups and other circuit training.”

In 2007, Cerezo heard the word CrossFit for the first time and would periodically visit CrossFit.com. But it was only when he attended the 2011 Latin America Regional in Panama as a spectator that he began to understand CrossFit and CrossFit competition.

A few years ago, you could find Cerezo wearing a suit and tie, working behind a desk doing financial analysis for one of Panama’s biggest banks. He says he would constantly think about how he would be able to have to time to train.

“Now that I own the gym, I have a lot more time for my own training. I even have more time to rest now, and I know I am in the best shape of my life.”

Cerezo is currently 20th on the region’s Leaderboard, but he understands the place you hold in the Open is only a number used to qualify for Regionals.

“Taking last year’s experience, all I want to do is qualify for Regionals, regardless of my standing at the Open,” he says. “At Regionals, everyone starts with a clean slate and if everything goes well, I hope to be standing on the podium at the end of that weekend. The competition is tough this year, but if an opportunity presents itself, I will be ready to take it and win.”

Cerezo is not too concerned about what combinations of movements might show up in 13.5.

“Now that the burpees are out of the way, I feel comfortable with everything else and I am ready to secure a spot at Regionals.”