Solid Swedes smash final event to finish first.
Copenhagen, Denmark—Sometimes you have to do your buddy a solid, and six athletes from Sweden did just that in a final event requiring a great deal of teamwork.
After holding second or third overall for most of the weekend, CrossFit Solid emerged victorious from the Meridian Regional, overtaking CrossFit Yas, who had stormed out of the gate by winning the first three events.
Felix Ledin, Alexander Elebro, Rikard Lanner, Helena Falk, Amanda Fränden and Anna Gärdsmo will be the team toast of tonight’s afterparty, which is known in CrossFit circles as a fairly legendary event that has a tendency to wreak havoc with travel plans the next day.
TEAM EVENT 6
The final heat of Event 6 started with nine ponytails snapping to attention above GHD machines, with the lone exception Emelie Smiding’s gloriously untamed mane.
The event was hotly contested by the five teams at the top of the leaderboard: CrossFit Yas, CrossFit Reykjavik - Virtuosity, CrossFit Solid, CrossFit Turicum and CrossFit Fabriken.
With all females looking smooth on the rings, the teams were very even, and it was work capacity rather than skill that determined the victors. The Yas, Solid and Fabriken female trios finished the cleans within seconds of each other, clearing the lanes for the men. Reykjavik was slowed slightly by some split cleans but wasn’t far behind.
GHDs in the rearview, male athletes did their best lord-of-the-rings impressions, snapping off large sets that ate up the reps quickly. When the male athletes had reached the barbells, it was clear that the order of the top three was reversed: Fabriken, Solid and Yas.
Fabriken pulled away to win the heat by about 10 reps, and Solid was close behind, with flower child Ledin once again wearing a blossom in his hair, as promised.
In the race for third in the heat, the rep-for-rep routine was ended when a CrossFit Turicum athlete blew a tire and flung his arms back without bar in hand. The slip cost the team, and the Yas men seized the opportunity to cross the mat third in the heat, fourth overall. Earlier, CrossFit Galiléô had put up the third-place time in Heat 2.
The event changed little on the leaderboard, with only CrossFit Reykjavik - Virtuosity stepping aside to allow CrossFit Solid into second. The quintet of teams had succeeded in distancing itself from the field, with Team Butchers Lab—sixth before the event—falling well out of contention after its men were left on the starting mat until just after the 23-minute mark. One was wearing a sweatsuit, so it’s probable they knew what was coming when the Rogue crew hung the rings on the rig.
After the event, the Games spots were all but decided, with 38 points separating fifth from sixth.
Beni Bachmann of CrossFit Turicum was “very happy” with his team’s performance in the event. Fifth place there locked the consistent team into fourth overall, with 12th in Event 3 the only anomaly.
“At the moment, we are the team with the most top-five finishes,” he said.
He and his teammates are looking forward to the final event, and Bachmann noted that it plays to the strengths of the three females on the team.
“It’s going to be a good one for us because we have a lot of gymnasts on our team,” he explained.
Though he said his squad hasn’t been able to finish the event in training, he’s aware that only three teams in the world have been able to log all the reps, and even getting close to completion will be more than fine.
The strict handstand push-ups that crush most teams should be in the wheelhouse of the Swiss team, which is far from neutral in this multi-nation battle royale.
“To have gymnasts on your team is always a good thing,” he said.
Event 6 Results
1. CrossFit Fabriken (18:25.0)
2. CrossFit Solid (18:50.9)
3. CrossFit Galiléô (19:06.6)
4. CrossFit Yas (19:40.2)
5. CrossFit Turicum (19:48.6)
TEAM EVENT 7
A host of teams were staring at the giant screen above the competition floor after Event 7. No team had finished the event, and it was difficult to tell which squad was where when time was called.
When the scores were finally tabulated, five teams rejoiced, and they were exactly the five everyone expected to send to California. The order, however, was different. CrossFit Solid (Sweden) had taken the lead from CrossFit Yas (United Arab Emirates). CrossFit Reykjavik - Virtuosity (Iceland) was third, CrossFit Turicum (Switzerland) was fourth, and CrossFit Fabriken (Sweden) was fifth.
The final event required a tremendous amount of strategy, as it hinged on strict handstand push-ups. Choose the order of athletes unwisely and a log jam could completely derail a team. Plan properly and a team could rack up the reps, even if most knew finishing all of them was close to impossible.
When the event started, all but one team had sent male athletes forward. Lindsay Hurte of CrossFit Turicum was the lone female, and the former gymnast from Florida knew it.
“I was like, ‘Fuck! I’m going to look terrible,’” said Hurte who married a Swiss.
She continued: “I think I’m the slowest rower, so no one had to hold for that … . I’m pretty fast with the other stuff.”
Indeed she was, opening with sets of 10 and 5 handstand push-ups before dropping down to smaller sets and eventually a few singles. Nearby, CrossFit Solid was making steady progress, and at either end of the floor CrossFit JST Black and Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha were also cruising.
Nordic’s final male struggled with grinding singles and no reps toward the end, and the team ultimately fell to third in the event. JST Black was 3 reps ahead to take second. Right in the middle of the floor, CrossFit Solid was lunging away with the event, leaving only 21 reps on the floor when time was called. The first-place event finish moved the team into first overall.
“We knew we were ahead in the event … ,” Ledin said. “We knew we were going to do well … . (But) it’s impossible to know how good the other teams are on strict handstand push-ups.”
The combination of strategy and fitness definitely paid off, and the crew will go to California as the top seed from the Meridian Regional.
“This has been our goal the whole year,” said Ledin, who was surprised that his sextet finished first after trailing CrossFit Yas for the entire weekend.
The team will be pushing hard for the CrossFit Games in July, but Ledin is advising a bit of recovery in the coming days.
“First of all, some relaxation. I’ll try to tell my teammates, ‘Don’t train for the next week.’”
And while he we’ll be going to Carson rather than San Francisco, Ledin will be sure to put a flower in his hair.
Event 7 Results
1. CrossFit Solid (cap + 21)
2. CrossFit JST Black (cap + 80)
3. Team CrossFit Nordic Alpha (cap + 83)
4. The Dutch (cap + 83)
5. CrossFit Reykjavik - Virtuosity (cap + 84)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. CrossFit Solid (604)
2. CrossFit Yas (592)
3. CrossFit Reykjavik - Virtuosity (570)
4. CrossFit Turicum (556)
5. CrossFit Fabriken (548)