"The only person I want to lose to is him, but in saying that, I don't want to really let him beat me."
We have seen a number of world records broken this CrossFit season.
During the Open, we broke the record for number of athletes taking part, and during the Regionals we have seen records tumble almost every week.
Australia saw its first one tumble on Friday with 22-year-old Kara Gordon flying through the second event, to record a fastest ever time of 11:56.
However, there could be another record broken this week, that has nothing to do with numbers, times or workouts.
Chris and Kieran Hogan are two Australian CrossFitters hailing out of Schwartz’s CrossFit in Melbourne, Victoria.
The two have been involved in the sport for years, are both respected members of the community and have both competed at the Regionals on multiple occasions.
The two are also brothers.
In the five-year history of the CrossFit Games, we have still never seen two brothers compete together in the same year.
There have been a few that have come close, including the Barto brothers (Aja and Aryan of the South Central Region), but to date there has been no male siblings to make it to the Games together.
The task, however, is made even tougher when there are only three spots available in the Region. And qualifying for the Games is hard enough, let alone qualifying alongside your brother.
Just ask Kieran.
Two times, Kieran has had to watch his brother stand on the podium at the Australian Regional and receive his ticket to the Games. Both times Kieran failed to make the top three, finishing 10th in 2010, and 8th in 2011.
“I got over there last year to watch him, which was pretty cool,” Kieran said. “But I’ve been watching him for a while and I’m hopefully catching up now.”
And catching up is just what young Hogan appears to be doing. This year, Kieran is going into the event with the better form, finishing 52nd overall in the Open, higher than brother Chris.
Chris is the older of the two and when asked about his thoughts on his younger brother he smiled and replied, “We don’t actually do a lot of training together now because of his studies and we work at different gyms so we only catch up once a month to training together. But it is pretty cool when we do. I’ve just been trying to work on a few weakness to try and catch him.”
The 26-year-old also admitted there was still some rivalry between the two.
“I mean, the only person I want to lose to is him, but in saying that, I don’t want to really let him beat me,“ Chris says.
It’s fair to say this year is going to be the athletes’ best chance. With age slowly creeping up on them, and the talent pool getting better each year, time is running out for the two to make CrossFit history together.
Regardless of whether they qualify together or not, the two will always share a special bond, as best mates, CrossFitters and, of course, competitors.
“It’s a really good relationship and is always good fun to try and compare training and see how we are going,” Kieran says. “It’s good to have a yard stick to chase.”
Come Sunday afternoon in Wollongong, Australia, we should find out if another record will be etched in the CrossFit record books.
