"I could hear the announcer saying people were catching up, so I pushed harder."
~ Tyson Takasaki
The morning of Day 2 in Canada West contained both great races and a few surprises.
As the dumbbells hit the floor during setup, Alicia Connors dropped a bomb, withdrawing from competition. Connors finished first overall in Canada West during the 2013 Open.
“During my overhead squats, I hyperextended my elbow on the third rep on the way up,” she said explaining her withdraw. “I could feel it right away, but I continued on with the muscle-up event. I woke up this morning in a lot of pain and I don’t want to make the injury worse by continuing on this weekend.”
Team
In the first heat, the CrossFit Vernon Alpacas overtook early leaders CrossFit Lions, and set the time to beat at 21:11.
“When I got to the pistols, I knew I had to hurry because CrossFit Lions were leading the whole event,” said Jen Schneider of the Alpacas. “I had my teammates cheering for me and it helped me push through the pain to win it.”
With so many teams eliminated in Events 2 and 3, the Canada West Regional fielded only two heats for Event 4.
Though the male athletes on other teams kept it close, the Centaurs took the lead with their first female athlete and kept building until the end.
“Our strategy with the guys was to just keep it going, unbroken, and not get caught up in a transition. No rest at any transition. We put faith in the females to finish it,” Robert Perovich said afterward.
Angie Hay managed to pull Taranis across the line in second place.
“Well, I’m a psycho. Chelsea Miller (of CFC Crew) and I have a long history of competing against each other and I saw her ahead of me,” Hay said. “So in my mind, I just kept thinking ‘Beat Chelsea!’”
Miller and CFC Crew finished in a tie for third.
Event 4
1. The Centaurs – 18:25
2. Team Taranis – 19:07
3. CFC Crew – 19:14
3 Synergy Strength A – 19:14
Overall
1. The Centaurs – 8 points
2. Team Taranis – 11 points
3. CFC Crew – 13 points
4. Synergy Strength A – 17 points
5. CrossFit 604 – 18 points
6. CrossFit 204 – 22 points
Women
Tara Maddigan set the standard in the first heat, managing 41 dumbbell snatches before time expired.
“I knew the chest-to-bar would take me awhile, so I wanted to go hard on the wall balls,” Maddigan said of her strategy. “We don’t normally train at that height so they were tricky. The workout wasn’t as bad as I expected, but the dumbbell snatch got heavy really fast.”
No athlete would best Maddigan’s score until the final heat, when Janine Walinski overtook overall header Heather Gillespie on the final 20 pistols. Head down, she ground her way through the snatches to keep her lead. Before the buzzer sounded, she managed 87 snatches.
“I knew that the chest-to-bars would be my weakness,” Walinski said. “So mentally I just plowed through those so I could get to the pistols. I knew a few girls would beat me to the snatches, but I knew once I got there, I could power through them.”
Event 4
1. Janine Walinski – 25:14
2. Jayde Quilty – 25:45
3. Heather Gillespie – 25:46
Overall
1. Heather Gillespie – 12 points
2. Erin Light – 19 points
3. Emily Beers – 23 points
4. Nancy McKeage – 30 points
5. Erica Livett – 35 points
6. Jayde Quilty – 36 points
7. Janine Walinski – 43 points
Men
Six men in Canada West completed the 100s Event under the 25-minute time cap. The growing crowd was primed, having waited six hours from the first heat to the start of the final. They weren’t disappointed.
Michael FitzGerald pushed the tempo with 60 unbroken wall balls to start the heat. He was the first to the pull-up bar, but couldn’t hold the lead against Tyson Takasaki.
Takasaki led into the pistols, and built a big head start before the snatches. Lucas Parker reached the dumbbells after Takasaki had completed 38. He slowly made up ground, roaring when he reached the final 20 reps, but Takasaki’s lead proved too great.
“I could hear the announcer saying people were catching up, so I pushed harder,” Takasaki said. “I feel really good about my finish, but those last 15 snatches were really hard.”
After rushing through his final reps, Lucas Parker finished fourth.
“The key word is that I finished. Pull-ups aren’t very nice on my shoulder right now, so I was pretty restricted with doing butterfly pull-ups,” Parker said. “I went into survival mode instead of attack mode, which you can’t really do.”
Event Four
1. Tyson Takasaki – 23:09
2. Curt Manning – 23:22
3. Mike Fitzgerald – 23:34
Overall
1. Lucas Parker – 11 Points
2. Tyson Takasaki – 14 points
3. Joey Lutz – 32 points
4. Curt Manning – 37 Points
5. Bryce Hafso – 37 Points
6. Mike Eberts – 38 Points
