2018 CrossFit Games: Saturday

This article will be updated as the day's events unfold.

Saturday at the CrossFit Games got underway at 8:30 a.m. and kicked off with Madison Triplus: a 500-m swim, followed by a 1,000-m paddle and a 2,000-m run.

Madison Triplus

It was déjà vu in the women’s competition as Tia-Clair Toomey and Kristi Eramo ran side by side toward the finish just as they did in last year’s Run Swim Run event. Toomey was able to pull away from Eramo to take first in the event (37:35.01) and her second event win of the competition so far. Eramo locked up second (37:40.33), followed by Chyna Cho in third (39:29.22).
 

In an impressive performance on the men’s side, Games rookie Dean Linder-Leighton pulled ahead of the field on the paddle and never looked back. Linder-Leighton logged his first-ever Games event win with a time of 26:37.51. He was followed closely by Brent Fikowski in second (26:52.44) and James Newbury in third (26:52.66). Fikowski and Newbury put on a show for the crowd, sprinting to the finish after running side by side for most of the 2,000-m run.
 

“I grew up as a surf lifesaver,” Linder-Leighton said after winning the event. “I knew if I could get out of the water in the top five or 10 … I’d get a bit of a lead for the run.”
 

 

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Chaos

Only known as “Chaos,” Individual Event 9 was a mystery literally until the last second.

Equipment lined the new field at the Alliant Energy Center, but athletes had no idea which movements they would be performing. At the buzzer, athletes began pulling on the Concept2 SkiErg. At the completion of 30 calories for the women, and 35 calories for the men, athletes were told they could move on.

Next up were burpees with a touch target, followed by single-arm dumbbell overhead squats. Upon completion of the squats, athletes moved on to perform an unknown number of pistols, followed by high box jump-overs.

The final implement posed a new challenge to athletes. Upon reaching the last stretch of turf, athletes were told they had to pull the tumbler, which weighed 400 lb. for the men and 300 lb. for the women, to the finish line to close out the event.

Katrin Davidsdottir led the event for the women and finished first with a time of 8:19.35.

“It’s a little bit scary because I do go by my strategies and try to be smart,” Davidsdottir said about the unknown quality of the event. “I went out hard but I tried to go just below that threshold.”

Canadian Patrick Vellner was steady throughout the event and reached the tumbler first on the men’s side. He finished the event in first place with a time of 9:19.86 and following the win was asked from the sidelines how he felt after yesterday's fall during The Battleground.

"Well enough to win the event," he said. "And that's all you need to know."
 

 

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Bicouplet 1 and Bicouplet 2

Bicouplet 1 and Bicouplet 2 closed out Saturday. Fans were given the chance to vote via Facebook for which event athletes would complete first. Bicouplet 2 was chosen: 12, 9 and 6 reps for time of snatches and bar muscle-ups.

Athletes had 6 minutes to complete Bicouplet 2, then a 1-minute transition before they'd take on Bicouplet 1: 21, 15 and 9 reps of snatches with a lighter barbell and chest-to-bar pull-ups.

In the final men’s heat, Willy Georges took the win in Bicouplet 2 with a time of 3:03.67. Georges is a Games rookie and the first man from France to represent his country as an individual at the CrossFit Games.

After a short rest, the final heat of men tackled Bicouplet 1 and Georges could not be stopped. He finished in 4:05.72, less than 2 seconds slower than event winner Rasmus Andersen, who set the winning time in Heat 3.

Through a translator, Georges expressed his gratitude for the energy of the crowd and for the opportunity to compete on the floor alongside all the other athletes.

 

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The women were up next. Reigning champ Tia-Clair Toomey came into the duo of events with a 106-point lead over second place. There were 200 points on the table—100 for Bicouplet 1 and 100 for Bicouplet 2. By the time her hands slid off the pull-up bar on the final rep, she had taken 160.

Known for her work on the pull-up bar, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet's time of 3:02.27 earned her the event win in Bicouplet 2. Bicouplet 1 went to Kara Saunders with a time of 3:39.00 after an epic battle in the final heat.

“I have a really good team of people who help me out with things like my nutrition and my recovery,” Saunders said after the win. “They were game changers as I went from a rookie athlete to a verteran athlete. (Nutrition and recovery) are things that cannot be neglected if I want to ask such great things of my body.”

Saunders adds that her goal for the rest of the weekend is to be mentally present and relentlessly persistent.

Tomorrow is the final day of competition. It all starts at 8:30 a.m. CT, and by the end of the day, we’ll know who’s the Fittest on Earth.

Check out the full Leaderboard for standings in all divisions.