Week One in Review: Australia

March 12, 2013

John Michael Bric

Matt Reilly, Kara Gordon, and CrossFit Active put in the top scores on 13.1.
 

After more than a million burpees and snatches, the first week of the 2013 CrossFit Open is now officially over.

In Australia, participation has boomed this year with 226 teams registering, and more than 9,000 individual athletes signing up for the five-week event. That’s three times more than last year!
 
As expected, by the end of workout 13.1, we had some familiar names, and some unknown athletes at the top the leaderboard.
 
Here’s a closer look at each of the major divisions:
 
Men
 
Last year’s Games athletes from Australia all performed solidly in workout 13.1 and sit comfortably inside the top 20 of the Region.
 
Brandon Swan is the best of the trio, posting a score of 190 to sit third overall in Australia and 46th worldwide.
 
Rob Forte also completed 190 reps, but his tiebreak score wasn’t as good, meaning he is now fifth overall in Australia, while 2012 Regional champion Chad Mackay is 19th in Australia after scoring 177.
 
The actual leader in the Australia Region is a bit of an unknown, with 24-year-old Matt Reilly in top spot. He scored 190 reps but had a better tie-break score than any of his competitors.
 
Reilly took part in the Open last year, but failed to register a score for workout 12.2, meaning he was unable to qualify for Regionals.
 
Other notable scores in week one include Zach Morton Adair (376th in Australia in the 2012 Open) who sits in second position in Australia after posting 190, Kiwi Mahdi Te Heuheu who is ninth with 180, and three-time Games competitor Chris Hogan who completed 170 reps and is tied for 51st place in the Region.
 
A notable absence in week one was three-time Regional competitor Jason Haywood, who failed to register a score for 13.1, meaning his won’t be competing at this year’s Regionals.
 
Women
 
2012 Regional champion Kara Gordon is off to a flying start after 13.1, leading the Australian Region with a score of 199.
 
Her score was three reps better than her nearest rival: former Games competitor Amanda Allen.
 
Seventeenth-place finisher at the 2012 CrossFit Games, Ruth Anderson Horrell is also up there, sitting in sixth position in Australia after posting 192, while 2011 Regional champ Amy Dracup is also in the top 10 with a score of 191.
 
Jennifer James, who finished 19th in Australia in the Open last year, sits in the third spot, with a score of 194.
 
A notable absence in the female division was podium finisher at the 2012 Regionals, Denae Brown, who gave birth to her first child last month.
 
Team
 
CrossFit Active, hailing out of Sydney, Australia, is the team to catch after 13.1.
 
The affiliate posted a combined score of 1,042 reps, putting them 13 reps ahead of their nearest rival, Southern CrossFit.
 
2012 Regional Champions Schwartz’s CrossFit Melbourne round out the top three in Australia with a score of 1023, while Rev X, who didn’t compete at the Regionals last year, is in fourth place.
 
CrossFit Athletic, who finished 38th at the Games last year, is sixth overall in Australia, while Tropic Thunder, who also qualified for the Games last year, is a bit further down the leaderboard in 34th position.