A miracle Down Under.
The final day of the Pacific Regional has seen one of the most spectacular comebacks and a new king has been crowned.
There was hardly room to move in the WIN Entertainment Center in Wollongong, Australia, as the crowd packed the stands.
Just two athletes had locked up their tickets to the CrossFit Games.
Rob Forte and Kara Webb sat well ahead of the competition with more than 400 points, but four qualifying positions remained up for grabs.
MEN
The top two times of the day for Event 6—a 5-round triplet of rowing, chest-to-bar pull-ups and strict deficit handstand push-ups—came from Heat 3.
Zeke Grove pulled hard to be the first man off his 25-calorie row with his high school best friend Joel Munro just 10 seconds behind. Both men proceeded to go unbroken on the 16 chest-to-bar pull-ups and 9 deficit handstand push-ups to start Round 2 well under the event record split.
Grove held his 10-second lead until the fourth round when fatigue set in and his previously long, smooth strokes on the rower became short and rough. Munro stole the lead.
Then they both started to struggle in their last sets of 9 handstand push-ups before a sprint finish, which saw Munro take victory by just two-tenths of a second.
“Coming into this event I was a bit tired and sore, but I knew these were strengths of mine,” Munro said. “Going out there with Zeke made it more special and with the crowd cheering us on was awesome.”
Third place came from the top heat, which was well off the pace set by Munro and Grove.
2014 Reebok CrossFit Games competitor Khan Porter was fastest off the rower in the heat and headed to the rig with a clear lead. However, he chose to break his 16 chest-to-bar pull-ups into two sets from the beginning, which allowed Dean Linder-Leighton and Rob Forte to close the gap.
The three athletes were with each other on every movement as they progressed through the second round, before Linder-Leighton kicked into another gear and pulled away with stronger handstand push-ups. Despite struggling on the last set of push-ups, Linder-Leighton took the heat with Porter sprinting to the finish 20 seconds later.
“I was hoping to get into the top five with the events yesterday, but I finished 31st in the snatch,” Linder-Leighton recounted. “I looked at it and thought, ‘There’s only 34 points (between me and a qualifying position) and 200 points up for grabs.’ I recomposed myself and decided either win it or don’t show up. If I can do the same again in the next event and be in the top (five), then maybe I’ll make up those 34 points and go over to the Games.”
Event 6 Results
1. Joel Munro (11:51.8)
2. Zeke Grove (11:52)
3. Dean Linder-Leighton (12:44.5)
4. Khan Porter (13:04.8)
5. Kevin Manuel (13:11.1)
It was going to take a near miracle at the start of the final day for Ben Garard to qualify for the CrossFit Games.
That miracle came in Event 7 in the form of a first-place finish and an event record. Garard was the fastest through his unbroken 15 muscle-ups and had no missed reps on the clean ladder for a time of 1:17.9. New Zealander Kevin Manuel was just half a lift behind.
“I’m pretty emotional right now,” Garard said after realizing he qualified for the 2015 Games in the last qualifying spot. “It’s been a roller coaster of emotions all weekend. I started in the worst possible way and finished in the best possible way. It just proves to everyone out there if you just keep believing in yourself, never give up and stay confident, anything can happen.”
The key to a good score on the final event was smooth, unbroken muscle-ups and perfect lifts and many athletes came unstuck on one of those elements, including overall leader Rob Forte.
With Brandon Swan—who was in sixth place going into the final event—and Dean Linder-Leighton—fifth place—struggling during the sprint event, the door opened for Garard.
Khan Porter’s strong Day 3 finished put him in first place, edging out Forte for the top spot. Mackay will make a return trip to the Games after failing to qualify in 2014.
“I’m super emotional,” Mackay said. “It’s one of those things where I don’t like to think about it too much, I just want to do my best each workout. I went out, executed and did my best. I’m stoked.”
And finally, Kevin Manuel will make his debut at the StubHub Center in July.
“I knew I had to do something special after I came into the event in 8th,” Manuel said. “I started feeling a bit tired in the last couple of lifts, but I managed to get it up and it’s unbelievable.”
Event 7 Results
1. Ben Garard (1:17.9)
2. Kevin Manuel (1:21.9)
3. Khan Porter (1:25.3)
4. Chad Mackay (1:28.5)
5. Chad Mackay (1:31.9)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. Khan Porter (551 points)
2. Rob Forte (541 points)
3. Chad Mackay (489 points)
4. Kevin Manuel (471 points)
5. Ben Garard (469 points)
WOMEN
Only three women at the Pacific Regional finished Event 6’s 5-round triplet.
Sammy Wood led the pack after the first 25-calorie row, but by the end of the first set of 9 deficit handstand push-ups it was the Denae Brown and Alethea Boon show.
For the next three rounds, Brown would be first off the rower by about 5 calories, but by the end of the handstand push-ups, Boon would be just 1 rep behind.
“I knew that (Brown) would always be slightly ahead of me,” Boon said.
As the top two women closed in on Round 4, Tia-Clair Toomey made her move and was less than 10 reps behind in third place.
The crowd rose to their feet, as Brown and Boon strapped into the rower for the last round. Just as with the previous rounds, Brown walked to the rig first, but had to break her chest-to-bar pull-ups into four sets, which allowed Boon and Toomey take her lead as they went unbroken.
However, the deficit handstand push-ups were the deciding factor. Boon had little trouble breaking the movement into sets of three to take her first event win and leaving Toomey and Brown to struggle through the final reps.
“I thought Denae might have sprinted ahead of me at the end, but I guess I just stuck to my plan and it worked,” Boon said.
Brown finished her last handstand push-up half a rep before Toomey for a sprint finish.
“It would have been nice to get the win, but Alethea is lethal,” Brown said of her competition. “She’s bloody awesome.”
For the first time this weekend, Kara Webb did not finish the event, but placed fourth with just five reps incomplete.
Event 6 Results
1. Alethea Boon (14:47.9)
2. Denae Brown (15:05.1)
3. Tia-Clair Toomey (15:05.9)
4. Kara Webb (CAP+5)
5. Stephanie Ortiz (CAP+6)
Webb stamped her dominance on the competition one more time with a win on the final event. Webb was first off the rings after going unbroken on her set of 15 muscle-ups, but a no-rep on her first clean slowed her down.
But a no-rep is no problem for Webb. She won the event by more than 6 seconds.
“I wanted to do the muscle-ups unbroken and I had the ability to do it, so this was a good test for me,” Webb said. “I had nothing to lose, so I was like I’m either going to do 15 unbroken or die trying. The plan now is to eat a lot of food, chill out, pretend I’m not an athlete for two days and just be Kara—the wife, daughter and pet owner.”
Toomey cemented her first ticket to the CrossFit Games after earning second place in Event 7. Toomey made the clean ladder look like her warm-up weights.
“Words cannot describe how awesome that felt, I mean those muscle-ups didn’t feel the best, but those cleans are definitely my favorite,” Toomey, who finished in third overall said.
Boon capped an outstanding first individual regional campaign with third on the final event to seal second overall.
“I am absolutely over the moon, completely stoked that I stood up the 175 lb,” Boon said of the final weight in the row of squat clean weights. “It’s not a one person thing, it’s the team—my coach Adam Perry, it’s Chad MacKay, Justine Beath, Harriet Roberts and all those guys, it’s not an individual performance. It takes a whole team to get one individual through.”
Wood, an experienced weightlifter, was meticulous through the clean ladder, making sure she was set before picking up the bar, to take fourth.
While Wood is making her individual debut after competing as part of CrossFit Athletic’s Games team in 2014, Brown will return to Carson, California, for one last hurrah at the before retiring from CrossFit competition.
Event 7 Results
1. Kara Webb (1:45.1)
2. Tia-Clair Toomey (1:51.4)
3. Alethea Boon (2:01.6)
4. Sammy Wood (2:20.9)
5. Denae Brown (2:47)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. Kara Webb (645 points)
2. Alethea Boon (589 points)
3. Tia-Clair Toomey (578 points)
4. Denae Brown (561 points)
5. Sammy Wood (536 points)
