Abu Dhabi team CrossFit Yas goes two for two at Meridian Regional.
Copenhagen, Denmark—It’s always been a league of nations at the Europe Regional, and teams from the Africa Region added yet more diversity to the list when the Meridian Region opened at 9 a.m. local time.
Heat 1 of the team competition featured squads from England, Israel, United Arab Emirates and South Africa racing though partner deadlifts and synchronized chest-to-bar pull-ups. A host of other nations were represented in the later heats, including Russian Federation, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and more.
“It’s new to us,” said Wilna Appel of CrossFit PBM, the team that represented the Africa Region at the Games in 2014. “We don’t know our competition. It’s a good thing. You just have to go out and give everything.”
Appel said the team wasn’t suffering from jetlag—there’s no time change between Pretoria, South Africa, and Copenhagen—but had been on the road for 24 hours straight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
If the European teams had home-field advantage, the sextets from Africa certainly came ready to push.
TEAM EVENT 1
“Dancing days are here again,” Robert Plant sang in the old Led Zeppelin tune, and he might have been describing the first team event.
Pairs that worked in synch gracefully ticked off the reps with beautiful precision, while the badly matched pairs looked as awkward as high-school kids stomping each other’s toes during a waltz at the prom. Tall-short pairs staggered sideways at times on the deadlifts as a result of mistimed pulls, and the pull-up bar provided yet another chance for partners to look at each other with “what the hell are you doing?” looks on their faces.
The best example of the struggles came in Lane 2 of the final heat, where CrossFit Reykjavik Virtuosity’s first pair repeatedly lost its timing toward the end of the last set of pull-ups. Again and again they jumped to the bar, wiggling like fish on a hook and failing to synchronize before jumping down without even attempting a rep. Their frustrated teammates yelled from across the floor, with the cries becoming more irritated and urgent as time ticked away. The early error cost them time, but their teammates cleaned up and pulled the team into sixth overall.
CrossFit Yas, on the other hand, might as well have sent a set of identical twins to the bar in the anchor leg. Perhaps sexy and knowing it, the final pair from the United Arab Emirates team swept through easy chest-to-bar pull-ups almost to the beat of the LMFAO party track throbbing in the background. The butterfly reps came quickly and effortlessly, and their overall time of 15:01.3 was good enough for first overall.
Interestingly, Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha struggled slightly in the event, with former individual Games athletes Numi Katrinarson and Jenny Jacobsen down to singles in the last set. Each time, Katrinarson would lift Jacobsen to the bar before hopping up himself to complete a single with a standard kip. Nevertheless, the team finished fifth overall in 18:13.9.
Katrinarson said he knew the event would be tough on his team as the female half struggles with chest-to-bar pull-ups at times. To combat that issue, dance partners were matched up not according to skill but chemistry and rhythm. He noted one early pairing was disbanded simply because the athletes couldn’t synch up, and the shuffle created better results in training.
“The girls lead. The guys follow,” he said.
His team also focused on getting consistent reps rather than risking misses by going for blazing speed with the butterfly technique.
“It’s all about not getting a no rep instead of looking awesome and letting people stand for one or two minutes because of a no rep,” he explained.
He said all three pairs had but 3 missed reps between them on the pull-up bar, so the strategy obviously paid off.
“We’re just going to get better,” he said, looking forward to Event 2.
Event 1 Results
1. CrossFit Yas (15:01.3)
2. CrossFit Fabriken (15:12.3)
3. CrossFit Solid (16:03.1)
4. CrossFit Turicum (16:23.7)
5. Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha (18:13.9)
TEAM EVENT 2
Event 2 was a long grinder, but it was more like a series of short, brutal hockey shifts than the 90-minute football matches common to Europe. Groups of three divided up a large number of reps, and the top squads were the ones who successfully balanced cycling speed with minimal transition times. In general, the best teams pounded out fast reps and switched athletes very quickly when the reps started to slow down.
After watching previous regionals, most teams knew the drill for Event 2: The men needed to blitz the snatches and then clear the decks for the women. After the first barbell was on the ground for the last time, their performance didn’t matter as long as they didn’t hold up the trio behind them.
“We were trying to finish the snatches as fast as we could so the girls could start,” said Ako Rahim of Fit4Life. The team finished second in Heat 2. “We sprinted. … We could (then) coast because we are better climbers.”
If the men could stay ahead of the women—and most could—they were able to downshift, but the women had to stomp the accelerator with both feet right from the first snatch.
“They (the women) had to go very hard. They all train weightlifting, so they like the snatches and the thrusters. It was the rope climbs that were a little bit slower for them,” Rahim said of his crew.
In the final heat, the men stepped aside for the women very quickly indeed, with the best teams done with the snatches by the 5-minute mark. From there, the women redlined, with CrossFit Yas, CrossFit Solid and Team Nordic CrossFit Alpha distancing themselves from the field. First off the rope climbs, the three teams raced through 115 thrusters.
The women of Yas know what it means to go hard. Jamie Greene, Tamarind Robinson and Sabine Whitfield placed first, second and 10th, respectively, in Africa for the 2015 Open. Hammering out sets of 10 according to plan, the Yas athletes were firing like pistons. The deal was sealed when Robinson utterly blasted the final 15 reps with a vengeance that brought head judge Chuck Carswell over to congratulate her after she stopped the clock to put her team first. Male team members Elliot Simmonds and Antony Monks both competed as individuals in the Europe Regional in 2014, finishing 29th and 36th.
Robinson said the female trio knew they had to go “really, really, really hard” in the event.
With a host of experienced regional athletes, the team from Abu Dhabi—which took first overall in Africa for the 2015 Open—now sits first overall and will be wearing a target for the rest of the competition. Five events remain, but two-first place finishes have given the sextet a 20-point lead going into Day 2.
When asked about competing in Europe, Robinson said it was “cold,” even though Copenhagen is blessed with a sunny 15 C (59 F) Friday. Current temperature in Abu Dhabi is 40 C (104 F).
Robinson said her team arrived with confidence and will continue to put out maximum effort to see where the chips fall on Day 3.
“Everyone expects to do their best. We came in with no expectations … . If we make it, we make it,” she said.
Event 2 Results
1. CrossFit Yas (18:52.0)
2. Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha (19:15.6)
3. CrossFit Solid (19:32.8)
4. CrossFit Reykjavik Virtuosity (19:58.3)
5. CrossFit Turicum (20:02.0)
Overall Standings
1. CrossFit Yas (200)
2. CrossFit Solid (180)
3. Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha (175)
4. CrossFit Turicum (165)
5. CrossFit Reykjavik Virtuosity (160)
6. CrossFit Fabriken (158)
7T. CrossFit JST Black (136)
7T. Idol (136)
9. The Dutch (132)
10. CrossFit PBM (130)