Tarasa Barnett will be competing alone to defend her title.
After a long Day 1, athletes started to arrive to the “Canchas Panamericanas” Saturday morning in smaller numbers than the previous day. The workouts eliminated a lot of the competition as Day 2 started with only nine teams, 15 male athletes and four female athletes.
Event 3 intimidated a lot of competitors as most of them hadn´t been able to practice the one-arm snatches with the epic 100-pound and 70-pound dumbbells. As in other regions overseas, getting specific equipment can be extremely challenging and expensive. Most individual and team athletes practiced the movement with the necessary equipment earlier this week, giving them just a few days to perfect this technical movement.
Teams
Team WODBOX from Mexico D.F. took Heat 1 by storm as Ricardo Andreu completed the first 10 snatches in less than 20 seconds. Then it was time for female competitor Dominique Jocelyne to back up her teammates performance, and she did just that. Slowly, but with great technique, Jocelyne chipped away at the snatches, as the crowd supporting her grew bigger. She completed the first set of snatches before any male from the other teams had completed their required 10 reps. The next sets of snatches were tough for Jocelyne but she never quit. To relax she would dance salsa between reps as the crowd cheered for her. No other team had their female competitors complete one rep and team WODBOX won the heat with an official time of 12:27.
Heat 2 spotlighted CrossFit 7 Mile and CrossFit Cayman, the teams currently standing in 1st and 2nd place, respectively. CrossFit 7 Mile's secret weapon was Schamarrah McCarthy who backed up her performance on the hang cleans yesterday by flying through the snatches with ease.
CrossFit 7 Mile was the only team to complete Event 3 with a time of 8:01. Although CrossFit Cayman and CrossFit Guayaquil were not able to complete the entire workout, their female athletes did an outstanding job. This leaves CrossFit 7 Mile comfortably standing in 1st place with a four point differential over CrossFit Cayman and only four remaining eligible teams for the rest of the weekend.
Event 3 Standings
1st Place: CrossFit 7 Mile (8:01)
2nd Place: CrossFit Guayaquil (12:08)
3rd Place: CrossFit Cayman (12:26)
Overall Standings
1st Place: CrossFit 7 Mile (3)
2nd Place: CrossFit Cayman (7)
Men
Men’s Heat 1 was led by Erik Hamilton, the coach at CrossFit Medellin who led the workout all the way by going through the snatches smoothly and using the sprint as a light jog to rest between sets. Hamilton had practiced this workout with heavy kettlebells, which he says was a lot harder since he had to deal with the stabilization of the kettlebell.
The dumbbells felt more comfortable for Hamilton and he won his heat with a time of 6:47, followed by Chris Atkins from CrossFit Bogota. Christian Aguirre won Heat 2 with a time of 7:39 and an overall 6th place in the workout.
In Heat 3 we saw Conor Murphy, who finished Day 2 in 2nd place with six points overall and three behind leader Orlando Trejo.
Murphy never thought he would be holding the 2nd place in the Region after Day 1. As the third heat started, Giancarlo Vera sprinted through the first set of snatches as Orlando Trejo paced each rep and controlled his breathing. As the runs went by Trejo took the lead with his consistent pace as the other competitors slowed down in the one-arm snatches and fell behind.
Trejo went on to win the event with a time of 5:59 followed by Chris Irwin with a time of 6:31. Murphy struggled in the last round of snatches and ended up with a time of 9:11, dropping one position in the Leaderboard. “I was nervous about Event 3 because I had not been able to practice the [snatch] movement with dumbbells,” said Trejo right after the event.
Right now he is just focused on improving every day and does not like to compare his times with top athletes of other regions. He acknowledges that he has a lot to improve on and does not think too much about being the favorite athlete to win the Latin American Regional.
Event 3 Standings
1st Place: Orlando Trejo (5:59)
2nd Place: Chris Irwin (06:31)
3rd Place: Erik Hamilton (06:47)
Overall Standings
1st Place: Orlando Trejo (4)
2nd Place: Giancarlo Vera (15)
3rd Place: Conor Murphy (16)
Women
With four female competitors left in competition, only one heat was needed to determine the winner of Event 3. The only athlete who felt comfortable about the one-arm snatches was Tarasa Barnett, and this showed as the heat started. Barnett chipped away at the snatches, one by one making sure she relied in technique other than strength to get the dumbbell up. As Barnett moved on to the second and third set, the other female athletes were struggling to get the weight up.
Ani Weiselmann from Panama was able to get 3reps and Vivian Sakamoto completed 2. Sakamoto was so excited about completing this rep she started to dance samba as the crowd cheered her on. Nelly Fernanda Rodriguez was not able to complete any reps leaving her out of the competition, along with Weiselmann and Sakamoto.
For the second year in a row, Barnett is the only female eligible to qualify for the CrossFit Games in Latin America. It will be interesting to see what her strategy will be leading up to Event 4 and Day 3. The ultimate goal for Barnett is to be a competitive athlete at the CrossFit Games this summer. Her coach and husband Matt Barnett says that even though she always wants to give 100 percent in every workout, this might not be the best strategy long term.
Event 3 Standings
1st Place: Tarasa Barnett (10:12)
Overall Standings
1st Place: Tarasa Barnett (4)
