Dreams die on Day 3—especially for dudes.
Rich Froning traditionally dropped the hammer by winning just about everything on the final day of competition, but last year Mat Fraser was almost out of reach by the end of Saturday. Despite faltering last night in Assault Banger, he's still got 68 points on the rest of the field.
For the women, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Tia-Clair Toomey have a chance to make it a two-horse race with a very strong day. If they stumble while others thrive, six other athletes are close enough to pounce.
10 a.m., North Park
The Professor gets another A+.
The cerebral Brent Fikowski edged Mat Fraser for his sixth career event win in one of the closest finishes in history. Fraser actually fell off the playing field after the two crossed the line but was all right.
Fikowski, under the yoke, almost settled for second when he looked forward and saw Fraser with the sled.
"I honestly thought that he was out of reach. ... Then I remembered it's not his body, it's his sled."
He continued: "I knew as soon as she said 'drop' I'd have to sprint."
Sprint he did, and he said he remembered to kick out the leg with the timing chip to stop the clock. The effort was all out.
"I was shaking all over the place."
11:30 A.m., North Park
Castro let the athletes program Strongman's Fear—sort of.
While the implements, distances and loads were set, athletes could play chess and move the pieces when they saw fit, as long as they used a handstand walk to get back to the pile each time.
Though Forte said none of the implements affected his inverted efforts, Pearce put a full 120 feet of sled dragging in the middle of the event because "it gives you a bit of a break from handstand walks."
For the very strong Webb, the order wasn't particularly important.
"I don't think there was much I could do better. For me it was more about hustling with whatever piece of equipment I had."
But if the game is "fitness chess," you'd do well to consult the queen.
Katrin Davidsdottir said she and coach Bergeron definitely used strategy: "The easiest to kick up after is the sled."
Davidsdottir's order—farmers carry, sled, yoke—worked very well for her: She won the event.
Checkmate.
1 p.m., Coliseum
Sager—who took 27th in the Muscle-up Clean Ladder—might have figured out why Toomey hit a snatch PR at the Games and not the Olympics.
Sager, who played football in front of more than 70,000 people at the University of Washington, said the unique atmosphere of the Games is far different from college-football craziness. And you'd guess it would be night-and-day different from the immense pressure of a silent room with a single lifter on a platform. He described the roar of a football stadium as a "thunder roll" felt in the chest but said a shot of the Games goes straight to your head.
"It psychs you up. You feel it in your mind because it's so electrifying. ... That says something about the CrossFit community."
After Coliseum events, the athletes have a relatively lengthy walk back to their warm-up/recovery area. The route winds under the bleachers, down a long tunnel, up some stairs and into the beer garden. From there, they walk along the building outside, then over a bridge above the main gate—which is where Kieran Kesner took this shot of Sigmundsdottir.
Fans erupt when they see the athletes, and the Athlete Control team is tasked with keeping the Fittest on Earth moving so they stay on schedule. The athletes don't have time to hit 100 selfies and sign autographs just yet, but they do their best to slap hands with everyone and acknowledge the support.
They know you're out there, and they appreciate you.
"It's a pretty epic feeling. They're the reason we're here. ... I can't thank them enough." —Overall leader Tia-Clair Toomey
2:45 p.m., Coliseum
Nine events, no problem?
After athletes completed Muscle-Up Clean Ladder, most reported that they feel pretty good despite the workload.
Tennil Reed-Beuerlein, the overall leader going into the event, said she was much better prepared than she was last year.
"It's night-and-day different. I feel 1000 times better this year."
She said the 2016 trail run at The Ranch poked holes in her tires, and she was completely flat at the end of the weekend, missing her goal of making the top 10 by one spot. Though she had trained very hard, she said she simply hadn't built up the capacity to accomplish her goals at the Games. She noted that it's particularly impressive when rookies do well because it usually takes time to develop into a top Games competitor.
"I had a whole year to add onto the volume that I can handle," she said of her current lack of soreness.
Similarly, Sara Sigmundsdottir said she could only walk down stairs backward after Murph in 2015, so she started building her capacity by separating multiple workouts with rest breaks to mimic the pace of the Games: "I changed the way I train. I train like I'm competing now."
With a laugh, Bridgers said she's banged up after a fall on Cyclocross: "The bike seat literally went up my butt."
And her comms are in disarray.
"Everybody's thumbs are not functioning properly from the hammer last night. ... It's hard to text."
7 p.m., Coliseum
Just before stepping into the corral for the final time on Saturday, Mat Fraser wandered back to the TV in the warm-up area and watched until Travis Mayer failed to beat Josh Bridges' leading time of 8:42—1:59 slower than the SoCal athlete's 17.5 time.
Fraser watched until 8:43 on the clock and then calmly walked back to the corral, thinking the thoughts of a man who was looking to win his second event in a row and his third of the competition.
Fraser was deep into the sea of bars when he passed his Open time of 6:24. He took careful note of the clock, calmly finished his last rounds and walked over the line in 8:24 to take down Bridges' time and tie a legend's record. Fraser now has 23 top-two finishes in Games events—the same number as Rich Froning.
"It's a completely different workout," Fraser said after the event.
Maybe. But the result was the same as it was in the Open: Fraser wins.
Mekenzie Riley owns the best 17.5 time of any Games athlete—male or female. She posted 6:23 in the Open, and she thought she'd average about 1:00 per round on Heavy 17.5 She has an ace card:
"I love double-unders," she said with solemn sincerity.
Riley is actually so good at them that she made up time on them at Regionals even though just about every athlete at that level has mastered the movement.
Riley delivered, finishing second in her heat on the strength of near-effortless rope work. Her 9:08 was 2:45 slower than her Open time.
For perspective, Helgadottir was 36th in the world with a time of 6:59. In the same heat, she added 3:22 to stop the clock at 10:21. She didn't have a goal in mind but felt like 3:22 was more than she wanted to add. At least some of that was related to a small error planning her double-unders: "I lost a couple of seconds in the beginning. ... I kind of zoned out and thought it was 30."
Overall, Kara Webb took her third event win of the competition by posting 7:53—which was only 68 seconds slower than her time with a far lighter bar. She said the load change actually didn't affect her that much.
8:30 p.m., Alliant Energy Center
Mat Fraser went into the last event of Day 3, with a 134-point lead. He walked out with 174 points to give and can afford to take last in the first event tomorrow without worrying much.
But he would worry. Fraser is far beyond driven, and he's once again putting together a dominant performance that's got him in position to improve on 2016's historic 197-point margin of victory.
As has been the case in recent times, the women are providing the tension while Fraser stomps his rivals. Two women from Australia sit just 14 points apart: Tia-Clair Toomey is first and Kara Webb is hot on her heels. Two time third-place finisher Sara Sigmundsdottir is 40 points back of Webb in the bronze-medal position, but the fiery Icelander will be looking to claw her way upward.
The Fittest on Earth will get their gold tomorrow as the 11th edition of the CrossFit Games come to a close.
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Overall Standings
Women
1. Tia-Clair Toomey
2. Kara Webb
3. Sara Sigmundsdottir
Men
1. Mat Fraser
2. Noah Ohlsen
3. Brent Fikowski