Math in Madrid

May 29, 2016

Mike Warkentin

We analyze four amazing Event 5 performances and explain how Sara Sigmundsdottir set the Event 5 record. 

Records were expected to fall at the Meridian Regional, and indeed they have.

Five individual events have been contested worldwide, and Meridian women hold four of the records. In Event 3, three Meridian women posted times under the previous best.

In Event 5, Sam Briggs—fighting to recover from a poor Day 1—was less than a second off the event record. In the heat that followed, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Annie Thorisdottir went head to head, with the former breaking the record and the latter falling just under 10 seconds off the previous time.

Fans were left wondering what might have happened had all three been in the same heat to push each other, so we’ve collected their split times below to paint the picture. We’ve included the splits for previous record holder Candice Wagner just for fun.

Thorisdottir, Sigmundsdottir and Briggs are remarkably similar physically, while Wagner of the South is an outlier.

According to their CrossFit Games profiles, the three Europeans are all about the same height, and two of them are the same weight. Briggs and Wagner are about 16 lb. lighter, but Briggs has the heaviest listed deadlift of the trio, though the spread is only 40 lb. and each athlete is able to lift well above the workout weight of 275 lb. Wagner is the shortest, and while her deadlift PR is not listed, her sets were fast and unbroken, suggesting a PR in line with the other athletes.

  Wagner Briggs Sigmundsdottir Thorisdottir
Height 5'3" 5'7" 5'7" 5'7"
Weight 137 lb. 135 lb. 152 lb. 151.8 lb.
Deadlift Not listed 385 lb. 341 lb. 363 lb.

Briggs is known for her engine, endurance and running, while Sigmundsdottir and Thorisdottir tend to be better with the barbell and usually place higher in shorter, heavier workouts. Those generalizations were definitely in evidence in Event 5.

All splits were hand timed and are unofficial, except for final times. Times listed reflect the approximate completion time of the last rep of each movement.

  Wagner Briggs Sigmundsdottir Thorisdottir
ROUND 1        
Run 2:20 1:45 1:59 1:58
GHD 3:17 3:11 3:21 3:18
Deadlift  3:35 3:38 3:39 3:38
ROUND 2        
Run 6:05 5:52 6:03 6:06
GHD 7:29 7:27 7:29 7:36
Deadlift  7:55 8:03 7:52 8:00
ROUND 3        
Run  10:49 10:31 10:33 10:50
GHD  12:27 12:21 12:07 12:30
Deadlift  12:54.52 12:55.37 12:37.39 13:03.95

The following is a breakdown of approximate time spent on each movement in each round:

  Wagner Briggs Sigmundsdottir Thorisdottir
Run 1 2:20 1:45 1:59 1:58
Run 2 2:30 2:14 2:24 2:28
Run 3 2:54 2:28 2:41 2:50
Total 7:44 6:27 7:04 7:16
         
GHD 1 0:57 1:26 1:22 1:20
GHD 2 1:24 1:35 1:26 1:30
GHD 3 1:38 1:50 1:34 1:40
Total 3:59 4:51 4:22 4:30
         
DL 1 0:18 0:27 0:18 0:20
DL 2 0:26 0:36 0:23 0:24
DL 3 0:27 0:34 0:30 0:34
Total 1:11 1:37 1:11 1:18

Observations for Debate

All athletes completed Round 1 between 3:35 and 3:39, but Briggs was significantly faster on the run. She gave that time back in the GHDs and deadlifts, a trend that continued throughout the event.

Briggs was the fastest runner by at least 10 seconds in every round.

Thorisdottir and Sigmundsdottir were almost in lockstep in Round 1. By the end of Round 2, Sigmundsdottir had an eight-second lead.

Wagner was the slowest runner by far but made up significant time on the first set of GHDs. In fact, her later GHD rounds were about the same speed as Thorisdottir’s and Sigmundsdottir’s, but her blazing first set meant she spent less than four minutes on the GHD in total. All told, she was 23 seconds faster than the next fastest athlete (Sigmundsdottir) through all GHD reps. Her first set was the most significant contributing factor to her overall performance and served to minimize the damage of her slower running. While some experts have recommended a steady pace, Wagner’s approach worked for her—unless subsequent sets might have been faster had she gone slower in Round 1.

Briggs lost significant time on the last set of GHD sit-ups, in which she paused briefly at 20 and again at 30 reps. She was also slower to set up for deadlifts, though she did all sets unbroken—as did the other athletes. If you look at the deadlift times, a few precious seconds were shaved off when athletes moved quickly to the bar and lifted right away.

The athletes' times for each movement deteriorated in each round except for Briggs’ final set of deadlifts.

Sigmundsdottir’s GHD sets were the most consistent.

The spread between the fastest and slowest athlete was 1:17 in total running time, 52 seconds in GHD time and 26 seconds in deadlift time. Since these athletes could all perform unbroken deadlift sets very quickly, it was very difficult to make up any ground on the barbell. The workout was mostly decided on the treadmill and GHD.

With deadlift times equal and Wagner better on the GHD, Sigmundsdottir beat Wagner’s record mainly by being a far better runner, though you might argue that it was her aerobic capacity that carried her. Either way, she gained all the seconds she needed to break the record on the treadmill.

Ahead of Briggs’ pace at the end of Round 2, Thorisdottir gave up second place in the event with a poor third run.

If all athletes had competed as a group, Wagner would have been ahead at the end of Round 1 but would have been three seconds behind Sigmundsdottir at the end of Round 2. Briggs would have been the first athlete off the treadmill in Round 3, followed closely by Sigmundsdottir. Wagner and Thorisdottir would have been almost neck and neck. Sigmundsdottir would have taken and held the lead in the GHDs, and Wagner would have caught Briggs in the deadlifts.

In the East, Whitney Gelin was well ahead of Sigmundsdottir’s pace—an impressive 18 seconds coming off the final run. Gelin’s last set of GHDs took about 1:49 due to several short rest breaks, putting her only about a second ahead of the Icelander’s time. Sigmundsdottir’s deadlifts were about five seconds faster, and the event record stood. Overall, Gelin ran times close to those of Briggs but gave her surplus and a few seconds more back to Sigmundsdottir on the GHD and barbell.

In Briggs’ heat, she was so far ahead she started her third round of GHDs when one athlete was completing her second. One can only wonder if Briggs would have pushed slightly harder had Wagner, Gelin, Thorisdottir or Sigmundsdottir been beside her. But, in the end, that’s what the Games are for.