Week 3 of the 2021 CrossFit Semifinals ushered in the first three of five virtual Semifinal events: the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown, the CrossFit German Throwdown, and the Brazil CrossFit Championship.
Video highlights for each event with featured virtual matchups can be found on the CrossFit Games YouTube channel.
Here’s how it all went down.
Individual Event 1
Event 1 was a repeat of Friendly Fran from Stage 1 of the 2020 CrossFit Games: 3 rounds for time of 21 thrusters and 21 chest-to-bar pull-ups.
CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown
The men’s front-runners coming into the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown were Games veterans Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson and Frederik Aegidius, up-and-comers Reggie Fasa and Simon Mantyla, and Moritz Fiebig.
The race in this event was between Adrian Mundwiler and Uldis Upenieks. Mundwiler pulled away after completing 2 rounds unbroken, finishing just one second ahead of Fiebig and three seconds ahead of Upenieks for the event win.
Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson – Photo by @nwr_productions
On the women’s side, there were a number of top-seeded Games veterans coming into the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown, including Laura Horváth, Gabriela Migała, Emma McQuaid, and Annie Thorisdottir. The veterans were joined by up-and-comer Tayla Howe, who was looking to make her first Games appearance.
Horváth jumped to an early lead in Event 1, breaking up her thrusters early to save her strength for unbroken chest-to-bar pull-ups throughout the first 2 rounds. The strategy paid off with an event win at 4:06.
Emma McQuaid followed at 4:30, and Elena Carratala Sanahuja brought up third at 4:41.
CrossFit German Throwdown
Games veteran Jonne Koski was accompanied at the CrossFit German Throwdown by a handful of top-seeded men looking to earn their first Games appearances, including Giorgos Karavis, André Houdet, Joshua Al-Chamaa, and Boris Judin. Twenty-five-year-old Jurii Marincenco set the time to beat at 3:35, averaging 1.7 seconds per movement.
Transition management was the name of the game for Friendly Fran.
Karavis hustled to his final thruster, but the extra effort was costly: He had to take a short break on his last set of thrusters, which gave Koski the chance to take the lead.
However, Koski might have benefited from some extra rest himself. Faltering on his last set of chest-to-bars, he broke 13 reps in. Meanwhile, Marincenco took an extra moment to shake out before his last set of pull-ups, allowing him to go unbroken and win the event at 3:35, followed by Koski 2 seconds later.
Jacqueline Dahlstrøm – Photo by @vicmcleod
The women’s field at the CrossFit German Throwdown featured Games veteran and masters athlete Kristin Holte, two-time Games champion Katrin Davidsdottir, Jacqueline Dahlstrøm, Emma Tall, and Sona Karaskova, all of whom competed at the Games in 2019.
Dahlstrøm, a two-time Sanctionals winner, started Event 1 with a plan — and she stuck to it, taking just a single break in both the thrusters and pull-ups starting in the second round.
The strategy was good enough for an event win: Dahlstrøm clocked in at 4:12, 5 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Oihana Moya. Holte took third at 4:45.
Brazil CrossFit Championship
Top-seeded Agustin Richelme and Guilherme Malheiros entered the 2021 Brazil CrossFit Championship with hopes of earning a second trip to the Games in the men’s division (Malheiros also competed as a teenager in 2017). Meanwhile, 20-year-old Benjamin Gutierrez was looking to punch his first Games ticket alongside Nicolas Bidarte and Anderon Primo.
Malheiros and Richelme found themselves in a vicious Fran-off as they both went unbroken through the first 2 rounds. The two traded the lead back and forth, but Malheiros’ final set of unbroken chest-to-bar pull-ups gave him the advantage and a first-place finish at 3:40. Richelme took second by just 2 seconds, followed by Verdun at 3:46.
Virtual matchup: Cunha, Melina Rodriguez, Luiza Marques, Alexia Williams, Campos, and Nievas
After missing the 2020 CrossFit Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunha was hungry for cheese curds.
She tackled the first round unbroken, took just two breaks in the second, and finished her final round with an unbroken set of pull-ups for an event win at 3:43 — just 3 seconds behind Tia-Clair Toomey’s winning time from the Games.
Valentina Rangel took second at just over 4 minutes, followed by Nievas at 4:34.
Individual Event 2
This 400-rep event was a down-and-back chipper of dumbbell shoulder-to-overheads, dumbbell deadlifts, GHD sit-ups, and single-arm dumbbell overhead squats.
CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown
Fiebig started to pull away on the dumbbell deadlifts — Stewart and Upenieks close behind — but it was Guðmundsson who took the win, followed by Nikita Yundov and Fiebig in second and third.
On the women’s side, Annie Thorisdottir set the time to beat: 11:06.
Annie Thorisdottir – Photo by @nwr_productions
In the virtual throwdown, Migała pulled away on the first set of GHD sit-ups to win the matchup, but Thorisdottir’s time held. Migała took second at 11:24; Horváth finished third at 11:49.
CrossFit German Throwdown
Lazar Đukić and Koski were neck and neck throughout the event, but upon review, Koski was saddled with a no rep on his dumbbell overhead squats.
It was just the break Đukić needed: He stopped the clock at 12:03 for an event win and a 100-point boost to round out Day 2. Koski took second at 12:14, followed by Luka Đukić — brother to Lazar — in third at 13:02.
The chipper was a battle from start to finish.
Hollis came out hot, the first athlete to the GHD and the turnaround point of 100 dumbbell overhead squats. But Holte made her move in the chipper’s second half, taking the event win by 14 seconds at 11:18.
Brazil CrossFit Championship
Richelme found himself in his second close race of the weekend, this time with Cerveny.
Both athletes got through the dumbbell overhead squat turnaround point at about the same time, but Richelme picked up 19 seconds on the second set of GHD sit-ups, setting him up for a second-place finish in the event. Bidarte’s time of 13:17 won him 100 points and the event.
The time to beat heading into the featured matchup was set by Victoria Campos at 12:59.
Cunha continued to dominate the virtual race, keeping a steady pace all the way through and finishing second overall in the event. Campos’ time held up for an event win by a margin of over 40 seconds. She was the only woman to go sub-13 minutes in the event.
Team Event 1
The first team event was a spinoff of Friendly Fran: 3 rounds of 15 synchronized thrusters, 15 synchronized chest-to-bar pull-ups, and 15 synchronized bar-facing burpees.
CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown
Top-seeded teams: CrossFit Zurriola Training Culture, Team Butchers Lab T-Bone, Team CrossFit Holistic, CrossFit 8020, and Motion.
CrossFit 8020 at the 2018 Europe Regional – Photo by Nerijus Dusevicius
Team CrossFit Holistic came in with three top-10 finishes in the 2021 Quarterfinals.
Last weekend, the team added another top score to its stash with a tie for first in Event 1: Team CrossFit Holistic and CrossFit Nordic both finished the event at 7:13.
CrossFit German Throwdown
Top-seeded teams: From the Port, CrossFit Oslo Wolfpack, Team CrossFit Genas, CrossFit Fabriken, and AOD Fitness.
CrossFit Genas came out of the Quarterfinals in sixth place and wasted no time proving why. The team put up a smoking time of 7:01 in the first event — 12 seconds ahead of Oslo Wolfpack and good enough for the win.
The top five teams each finished the event in under 8 minutes.
Brazil CrossFit Championship
Top-seeded teams: FourMixx Brazil, Q21, CrossFit Villa Luro, Team SP, and Team Treta.
Matching outfits weren’t FourMixx Brazil’s only display of coordination in Event 1.
The team moved in perfect synchronicity on the pull-ups and burpees, earning an event win at 7:28. Team Q21 finished just 3 seconds later for second, followed by CrossFit Villa Luro in third.
Team Event 2
Event 2 was a down-and-back chipper featuring synchro dumbbell shoulder-to-overheads, synchro dumbbell deadlifts, synchro GHD sit-ups, and synchro single-arm dumbbell overhead squats.
CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown
Team CrossFit Holistic took first in the featured virtual matchup, but it was Team Genius and CrossFit 8020 that tied for first in the event at 20:14.
CrossFit German Throwdown
CrossFit Oslo Wolfpack finished at 18:52, crushing the rest of the pack and taking its first event win.
The Athlete Program followed nearly 90 seconds later; AOD Fitness took third at 21:12.
Brazil CrossFit Championship
The top six teams going into team Event 2: FourMixx Brazil, Q21, CrossFit Villa Luro, CFP9, and Team Treta.
Virtual matchup: FourMixx Brazil, Q21, CFP9, Team Treta, Team Samurai, and Ignorantes.
Despite a number of no-reps delivered across the floor, FourMixx Brazil won the matchup with a time of 20:35, good enough for second in the event. CrossFit Villa Luro won with a time of 20:22.
Cover photo by @1rmphotography