Week Three in Review: Canada East

March 25, 2013

Chris Cooper

Open Workout 13.3 was a great workout for three-time Games athlete Camille Leblanc-Bazinet.
 

Open Workout 13.3 was a great workout for three-time Games athlete Camille Leblanc-Bazinet.

The former gymnast finished her 30th muscle-up at the 11:29 mark, and rushed back to the wall to complete 17 more wall balls. Her unofficial score of 287 ranks second worldwide, and has pulled her into second on the worldwide Leaderboard.

Michele Letendre was two reps short of finishing the first round, which was good enough to help her climb to fourth in the Region.

Canada East's top male contender, Albert-Dominic Larouche, managed a 20th place worldwide on 13.3. He's finished first on the Regional Leaderboard for two weeks in a row. Last year, Larouche didn't win a single event in the Open; the Region held just over 900 male competitors. In 2013, over 1500 men are chasing Larouche, and he appears to be gaining ground despite the deepening field.

Masters 45-49 Division may be the most tightly contested race in Canada East. No athlete is clearly dominant on either the Women's or Men’s sides. Kelly Graham and Régine Ambroise, first and second in the region, finished only two reps apart, and were the only women in the category to complete a muscle-up.  

Debbie O'Rourke and Paige Savery are leveraging their top-10 finishes in each event in a battle for points. Savery, of CrossFit Crux, trains with Brandon Crump, who sits in third for Individual Men in Canada East.

Only five men in the Masters 45-49 Division saw their fans cheering from above the rings. Marc Chiarelli moved in to top spot when close rival Bruce Young finished 14th on the workout. Young won both previous workouts in the Region, but Chiarelli was second in both 13.1 and 13.2.

After three weeks of competition, the top of the Team seems less certain than it did a week before. CrossFit Select, which boasts a very strong team of Masters, finished second in the Region on 13.3 by a single point to L'Usine CrossFit.

The bottom of the Team category is beginning to receive a lot of conjecture, though, as Canada East fans begin to speculate about who will qualify for Regionals (and who won't).

Matt Lefave's new gym, CrossFit Liberty Village, is on the cusp of elimination in 30th spot with 93 points. CrossFit Resurrection finished 13.3 in 31st place. Three teams are tied for 32nd place with 108 points each — CrossFit CapOp, CrossFit Catalyst, CrossFit Cambridge. Can one make up the widening divide and earn a spot in Toronto in May?

Leblanc-Bazinet is in peak form earlier this year, but in 2012 she couldn't quite edge out Letendre at Regionals. However, finishing 5th worldwide at the Games is no mean feat, and Leblanc-Bazinet appears to be Canada's best bet for winning the Games for the first time since 2007.