Week 1, Day 1—What Happened While You Were at Work

Week 1 kicked off on Friday, May 18, with the Europe, East and South Regionals.

The competition at the Velodrome in Berlin, Germany, began with a surprise: At the end of the day, the men’s and women’s top spots were not held by one of the nine previous Games athletes (four men, five women) but by Regional rookie Roman Khrennikov—leading the men with 185 points—and up-and-comer Laura Horvath, who leads with 190 points.

Horvath was called out in the Europe Regional Preview as one to watch, a two-time Regional athlete at just 21. With two back-to-back second-place finishes on Day 1, she’s on track to live up to her reputation.

Roman — *Khrennikov took a surprise lead at the end of Day 1.*

Unsurprisingly, the next three women’s spots are occupied by three-year Regional champion Sara Sigmundsdottir (Central, 2017; Meridian, 2015-16), 2017 Meridian champion Kristin Holte and two-time CrossFit Games champion Annie Thorisdottir.

Seeing the Dottirs on top is not unusual; more surprising is who’s missing from atop the men’s leaderboard. Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson sits in 18th after Day 1, 51 points outside of fifth, which is currently held by Andrey Ganin.

Guðmundsson won the Meridian Regional in 2016 and 2017 and took silver in each of the two years before that. When Europe split from Meridian this year, no one questioned whether Guðmundsson would win, only who would take the spots below him. Today, he followed a 13th-place finish in Triple 3—a 3,000-m row, 300 double-unders and a 3-mile run—with a disastrous 23rd-place Event 2 finish, capped at 17 minutes with the final round still left on the floor.

The Europeans also took home three Regional records:

Men’s Event 1, Sigurður Þrastarson (35:25.02)
Women’s Event 1, Gabriela Migała (40:15.08)
Men’s Event 2, Andrey Ganin (12:09.31)

EAST

The East Regional at Times Union Center in Albany, New York, promised dramatics before it began. With two-time Games and East Regional champion Mat Fraser shipped off to Central, the men’s Eastern gold is up for grabs.

Also leaving a gap is James Hobart. The long-time Games and Regional veteran withdrew on Thursday after breaking a bone in his right foot in a practice handstand walk gone wrong.

With Fraser out of the region, many expect two-time Games bronze medalist Patrick Vellner—who took second in the East last year—to be the region’s new dominant force.

But instead of pure dominance, Vellner has demonstrated intelligence: After starting the weekend with a third-place Event 1 finish, he resisted the urge to race in Event 2, breaking his bench presses early and performing calm, methodical singles on the squat cleans. He didn’t need to beat heat leader Chase Smith; he only needed enough points to jump Marquan Jones and Craig Kenney, early-heat athletes who held the top overall spots.

Vellner took second in Event 2, but his pacing paid off, depositing him neatly atop the Leaderboard with 185 points, Kenney in second with 173.

“That’s how you want to start a competition,” Vellner said after Event 2. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Katrin Davidsdottir started the weekend hungry.

Last year she took second in the East, after having won it in 2016. When she got to Madison in 2017, she took fifth—after winning gold the previous two years.

“This year we’ve been working really, really, really hard, and we want it more than ever,” she said after winning Event 1 in 41:10.07, more than a minute faster than Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault, who took second.

Davidsdottir reiterated the big statement she made in Event 1 with another win in Event 2. She did the whole thing unbroken and set a new event record with a finish time of 12:50.04, taking the overall lead with an even 200 points.

SOUTH

The South Regional may have moved out of Texas, but it’s still got a cowboy. Sean Sweeney is back and so is his hat—and after missing the Games by one spot last year, he’s determined to tell a different tale.

“Last year we had some setbacks. … This year I’m coming at it with everything I got,” he said.

And in first overall with 190 out of a possible 200 points for the day, he’s off to a good start. He began with a solid third-place finish in Event 1, tipping his hat to a crowd filled with Sweeney heads—hat and all—on sticks. In Event 2, he came alive.

Though three-time Games athlete Roy Gamboa held a strong lead for most of the event, calf cramps put him at a dead stop in Round 4. He sat on his bench and pulled on his toes, watching as Mitch Spjut and Sweeney fought for the new lead.

But Sweeney built distance by running between movements, and by the time he finished his last squat clean, he had enough of a berth to pause and walk calmly to the finish at 14:39.09.

“I just thrive off the energy of the crowd,” Sweeney said after.

Last year, the showdown in the South for the women’s crown was between Tennil Beuerlein (then Reed) and 2014 CrossFit Games champion Camille Leblanc-Bazinet. This year, Margaux Alvarez wants in.

To be clear, Alvarez is no slouch: She’s a five-time Games athlete. But at the Regional, she’s always been just sort of—there, qualifying for the Games with a second- or third-place finish but no striking display of dominance. But after two second-place event finishes on Day 1, she sits in first overall with 190 points, 15 points ahead of Brista Mayfield in second.

Alvarez earned the lead with her veteran’s wisdom: While athletes in her heat and others went for larger sets on Event 2’s bench press and squats, she chipped away at her reps in small, quick sets.

Leblanc-Bazinet and Beuerlein continue to tango, but do so from 9th and 8th places after Day 1.