Day 3 of the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games individual competition kicked off on Saturday morning at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
Tia-Clair Toomey and Justin Medeiros sat atop the leaderboard with 861 and 744 points, respectively. Hungary’s Laura Horváth and Canada’s Brent Fikowski were not far behind in second, and Norway’s Kristin Holte and Canada’s Patrick Vellner sat squarely in third. In the first round of athlete cuts, the field was narrowed to 30 men and 30 women after Friday’s Event 9.
Competitors faced a packed day of events, only one of which was fully released this morning: Event 10, a couplet of long runs and toes-to-bars. A second round of athlete cuts loomed after the event, when the individual rosters would shrink to 20 men and 20 women, further tightening the race for the title of Fittest on Earth.
Event 10
On the women’s side, the two 1.5-mile runs of Event 10 lent to the strengths of 2013 Games champion Samantha Briggs and Holte, who is known for her endurance. The event had a total of 90 toes-to-bars, but as acknowledged by CrossFit Games commentator Chase Ingraham, “this is a running event.”
Aerobic-capacity coach Chris Hinshaw agreed.
“This workout is incredible. It’s the combination and the rep scheme,” Hinshaw said. “With 30 reps, they have to go unbroken. If they’d programmed 50, they would’ve broken it up and it would’ve created a completely different stimulus. The toes-to-bars are gonna tax the hip flexors, and running is all about your hip-flexor capacity. Those toes-to-bars are gonna make that run tough.”
Briggs, aka “the engine,” got out to an early lead on the first run and was first to get back to the second set of toes-to-bars. The race for the win got tighter from there as Kristi Eramo O’Connell and Emily Rolfe crept up and eventually overtook Briggs.
Eramo O’Connell and Rolfe went rep for rep on the final set of toes-to-bars, and a sprint to the finish saw Rolfe earn her first event win of the competition. Eramo O’Connell took second and Haley Adams came in third.
“I knew the third lap was gonna be the decider,” Rolfe said after the event.
Eramo O’Connell, who sat in sixth overall after the second-place finish, was laser focused heading into the remaining events of the day.
“I try to stay in my own lane,” she said. “It’s good to know where other competitors are, but if you don't listen to your body, you might push too far. … We all put the training in. Trust in your training and give it everything you've got.”
Latvia’s Uldis Upenieks and Australia’s Bayden Brown led the men on the first run in Event 10. Close behind were Medeiros and Jason Smith of South Africa.
Former water-polo player Lazar Đukić of Serbia moved into second on the final run and overtook Brown on the last set of toes-to-bars to earn his first career Games event win and pick up 100 points.
Notably, Fikowski, who is speculated to be contending with a hamstring issue, struggled with both the run and the toes-to-bars throughout the event, which would normally be in his wheelhouse. Fikowski finished in 26th place.
Event 11
Event 11 brought back the infamous pegboard, which was first seen at the 2015 Games when it tripped up many of the top athletes.
Danielle Brandon dominated Heat 1, racking up 226 reps over the 11-minute AMRAP of pegboard ascents, dumbbell overhead squats, and double-unders with a heavy rope.
But Toomey was on a mission to overtake the record of CrossFit Games event wins, at the time held by five-time Games champion Mat Fraser (29). She looked strong and steady throughout the event and completed 231 reps for the win and a new record: 30 Games event wins to her name.
Notably, Haley Adams, who sat in fourth place before Event 11, received two costly no reps on the pegboard. Adams finished the event in 14th place and fell to fifth place on the overall leaderboard, 29 points out of podium contention.
A far cry from 2015 when many women were unable to climb the pegboard even once, the top women of 2021 completed nine or 10 ascents apiece.
“All of us are evolving as athletes and people within such a new sport, so it’s super exciting to see what the future holds,” Toomey said after the win.
Medeiros came into Event 11 with an 87-point overall lead. The 22-year-old athlete has delivered an impressive performance so far and was showing no signs of slowing — until Event 11. A few bobbles on the pegboard and stumbles on the heavy rope left Medeiros toward the back of the heat. He finished the event in 16th.
It was Cole Sager in Heat 1 who delivered a near-flawless performance — with a huge smile — in Event 11. The former NFL draft pick had a great Day 3 with a fourth-place finish in Event 10 and a win in Event 11. Relieved that he survived the athlete cuts, Sager thanked the crowd and said he’s excited for what’s to come.
“Now we just dig in and we just run our race,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to the rest of the day and tomorrow.”
Medeiros still held a 62-point lead heading into Event 12.
Event 12
Event 12 brought out the heavy barbells and challenged athletes to a 1-rep-max snatch. The weight started at 160 lb. for women and 260 lb. for men. Athletes had a 20-second window to lift, and if they were unsuccessful, they’d participate in a tiebreaker of 3 squat snatches for time at 145 lb. for women and 225 lb. for men. When 10 athletes remained, the event moved to a single-platform format and athletes got an extra 10 seconds to lift the progressively heavier weights.
On the women’s side, the battle came down to Toomey, who has a background in Olympic weightlifting, and two-time Games champion Annie Thorisdottir. Both women successfully lifted the 200-lb. bar but failed at 205 lb. They took on the tiebreaker where Toomey outworked Thorisdottir for her 31st career event win.
Thorisdottir was thrilled after the second-place finish.
“I didn’t expect to hit that heavy of a weight, to be honest … but it felt amazing,” Thorisdottir said. “Just this atmosphere — you’re guaranteed to hit some good weights.”
“I feel like I'm gaining full control of my body and my mind again,” Thorisdottir added about competing after having her first child last August.
The men were up next. With each weight jump, the field was narrowed as the totality of the weekend’s events began to add up and fatigue set in.
After several rounds of tiebreaks, the battle was between Brazilian Guilherme Malheiros and Australian Royce Dunne. The event would end at the 305-lb. bar. Dunne — despite making three attempts in the 30-second window — could not hit the lift, but Malheiros’ perfect technique served him well, and he swiftly snatched 305 lb. to earn his third event win of the competition.
“I asked for a gift yesterday, and I prayed for a win,” Malheiros said afterward. “I’m just opening the doors for more athletes to come from Brazil. It means a lot to me.”
Tomorrow is the final day of the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games. Catch all the action live right here on Games.CrossFit.com.
Overall Standings After 12 Events
Men
- Justin Medeiros (949 pts.)
- Patrick Vellner (907 pts.)
- Brent Fikowski (888 pts.)
- Saxon Panchik (801 pts.)
- Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson (799 pts.)
Women
- Tia-Clair Toomey (1,145 pts.)
- Laura Horváth (939 pts.)
- Kristin Holte (834 pts.)
- Annie Thorisdottir (824 pts.)
- Haley Adams (810 pts.)
Note: All scores are unofficial at the time of publication.