The penultimate stage of the CrossFit Games season is officially underway, with the first individual and team qualifiers earning their place at the Games in Madison next month.
Last weekend, Oceania and the U.S. put the first set of Semifinal competitors through their paces at the Torian Pro in Queensland, Australia, and the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge in Knoxville, Tennessee.
From among a field of distinguished competitors and teams, three men, women, and teams in Oceania and five men, women, and teams in the U.S. separated themselves and will continue to the final stage of competition: the CrossFit Games.
A big congratulations to the champions!
Torian Pro Winners
No surprises on the women’s side! “She Bear” turned mama bear Kara Saunders put on a hell of a show in Queensland. With three event wins and no finish outside the top 10 — in fact, her lowest finish was just outside the top five — Saunders leapt across the finish line with a 96-point lead over second-place finisher Laura Clifton of New Zealand. Twenty-three-year-old Ellie Turner rounded out the top three.
Alethea Boon, Maddie Sturt, and Justine Beath — all separated by a mere 16 points — took fourth through sixth place and will have a chance to vie for Games qualification one more time at the Last-Chance Qualifier.
GAMES QUALIFIERS
On the men’s side, perennial Games athletes James Newbury and Khan Porter narrowly missed out on Games qualification, taking fourth and sixth place, respectively. Both will have a shot at redemption in the Last-Chance Qualifier along with New Zealand’s Luke Fiso.
Surging ahead in the competition and earning their spot on the podium as well as at the Games were three familiar Aussie athletes: Royce Dunne, Jay Crouch, and Bayden Brown.
We’ll see them in Madison next month!
GAMES QUALIFIERS
In the team competition, 64 Army Gold, Awaside, and Urban will move on to the Affiliate Cup competition.
GAMES QUALIFIERS
Congratulations to the champs and podium finishers at the Torian Pro!
For more details on the winners and last-chance qualifier contenders, check out these stories:
Catch up on everything you missed with the Torian Pro livestream archives:
Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Championship Winners
Tia-Clair Toomey and CrossFit Mayhem Freedom deepened the groove in their well-beaten path to CrossFit Games victory, standing atop the podium for the women’s side and teams.
But the buzz this weekend was all about Jayson Hopper, a relatively unknown athlete out of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Ultimately beating out one of the greatest in the sport, Scott Panchik, and 2020 Games podium finisher Justin Medeiros, Hopper took the lead in the first Semifinal for the U.S. He, along with Panchik, Medeiros, Travis Mayer, and Zach Watts, will head to Madison next month.
GAMES QUALIFIERS
On the women’s side, Toomey won handily, opening up a 60-point spread over second place, but the race for second brought a tremendous amount of excitement all weekend long. Haley Adams and Brooke Wells vied for the spot, taking second and third, respectively, followed by Amanda Barnhart and Jessica Griffith in fourth and fifth.
GAMES QUALIFIERS
The top teams included Mayhem, followed by Lone Star CrossFit, CrossFit Westchase, Training Think Tank, and On Track.
GAMES QUALIFIERS
Congratulations to all the winners and Games qualifiers out of the Mid-Atlantic!
For more details on the competition at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge, check out these articles:
Catch up on everything you missed with these archives of the livestreams:
What Are the Semifinals?
The 2021 CrossFit Semifinals are a brand new phase of the CrossFit Games season. They serve as the final hurdle for individual athletes and teams hoping to qualify for the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
The 10 Semifinal events take place over four consecutive weekends in May and June. They take place on six continents, each continent hosting at least one event: North America (4), Europe (2), Oceania (1), Africa (1), Asia (1), and South America (1).
Each Semifinal will host 30 men, 30 women, and 20 teams of athletes who scored top performances in the online Quarterfinals. View section 4.13 of the Rulebook for more information on how many athletes qualify from each Semifinal.
To see which athletes and teams are competing at each Semifinal, check out the Semifinals leaderboard. The leaderboard will be updated regularly during the Semifinal competitions.
View the date and location for each of the 10 Semifinals here. The five in-person Semifinals will be livestreamed and available for real-time viewing on games.crossfit.com, Facebook, and YouTube. Learn more about how to watch the events here.
