Week 4 virtual Semifinal highlights continue with Day 2 at the CrossFit Atlas Games and CrossFit Asia Invitational.
Video highlights for each event with featured virtual matchups can be found on the CrossFit Games YouTube channel.
Here’s how Day 2 went down.
CrossFit Asia Invitational Day 2
At the end of Day 1, it was the Russians atop the individual men’s and women’s leaderboards. After another full day of competition, the names changed, but the flags remained the same.
Twenty-six-year-old Roman Khrennikov stood atop the men’s leaderboard alongside 36-year-old Stas Solodov. Both athletes finished Day 2 tied for first with 348 points, just 6 points ahead of Day 1 leader Aleksandar Ilin.
Roman Khrennikov at the 2018 Europe Regional – Photo by Ruby Wolff
On the women’s side, 30-year-old Svetlana Kubyshkina held the top spot with 360 points. Kubyshkina doesn’t have a lot of major competition experience, but she finished 79th worldwide in the 2021 Open and has set herself up for a successful weekend with two event wins out of four by the end of Day 2.
While the leaderboard shifted for the men and women, not much changed on the team side. The Kolesnikov Team remained the overall leader with a near-perfect two-day performance. The team won three out of four events, just 5 points shy of a perfect score. The Kolesnikov Team finished Day 2 with a 25-point lead over Team Dubai in second place, who was 55 points clear of CrossFit Muharraq in third overall.
View the leaderboard for the CrossFit Asia Invitational here.
CrossFit Atlas Games Day 2
Individual Event 3
Athletes’ gymnastic abilities were put to the test in Event 3 with 60 total muscle-ups alongside dumbbell front-rack lunges and double-unders.
The top six men going into Event 3: Patrick Vellner, Dane Smith, Phil Toon, Samuel Cournoyer, Adam Davidson, and Jeffrey Adler.
Patrick Vellner took his second event win of the weekend with a time of 14:08, just 38 seconds faster than Jeffrey Adler, who finished second in the event.
Vellner finished his first 30 muscle-ups in 2:07, a hair more than 20 seconds ahead of Adler. He extended his lead during the walking lunges, never breaking on any of his sets. Vellner took timely breaks on his double-unders, allowing himself to get big sets on the muscle-ups, and broke only once in the final set of 10. Vellner finished off the event with an unbroken final set of 100 double-unders.
The top six women going into Event 3: Carolyne Prevost, Anikha Greer, Alexis Johnson, Emily Rolfe, Mekenzie Riley, and Baylee Rayl.
Event 3 for the women was a battle of lead changes between Baylee Rayl and Mekenzie Riley.
Rayl had nearly a 30-second lead over Riley after the set of 30 muscle-ups, but Riley beat her back to the set of 20.
Riley maintained her lead through the second round and had a seemingly clear shot to the finish, completing over half of her final set of muscle-ups before Rayl had even started hers. But then Rayl cranked up the heat, going unbroken on her last 10 muscle-ups. Both women finished their final 100 double-unders unbroken, but it was Riley who finished first, taking the event win at 17:18, just 16 seconds ahead of Rayl, who took third in the event.
Individual Event 4
Hello, heavy snatches.
In Event 4, athletes had 10 minutes to complete 3 rounds of 10 snatches, the load increasing each round. In the time remaining, athletes faced a max-effort snatch for reps at 165 lb. for the women and 245 lb for the men.
The top six men going into Event 4: Patrick Vellner, Jeffrey Adler, Samuel Cournoyer, Phil Toon, Alex Vigneault, and Tyler Christophel.
Brent Fikowski set the time to beat going into the virtual heat with a score of 50 reps. Fikowski hit 20 snatches at 245 lb., averaging 1 rep every 15 seconds. His score held, picking up a much-needed 100 points and his first event win of the weekend.
In the virtual matchup, it was a race between Adler and Cournoyer. Adler had a 16-second lead going into the last barbell, but Cournoyer closed the gap, tying Adler with 49 reps. Adler edged out Cournoyer to finish third in the event with a faster tiebreak time.
The top six women going into Event 4: Mekenzie Riley, Carolyne Prevost, Anikha Greer, Baylee Rayl, Emily Rolfe, and Alexis Johnson.
Twenty-one-year-old Sydney Michalyshen set the score to beat going into the virtual matchup with 54 reps, a score that would hold for the event win.
In the virtual matchup, it all came down to technique.
Alexis Johnson at the 2015 South Regional – Photo by Scott Wallace
Johnson took an early lead with fast and efficient power snatches. However, that strategy would prove costly as she slowed on the back end, allowing Riley, who switched to a squat snatch midway through, to finish just 2 reps ahead of Johnson with a score of 46 reps, good enough for fifth in the event.
Team Event 3
Event 3 was a maze of synchronized double dumbbell front-rack lunges, double-unders, and muscle-ups split between male and female pairs.
The top six teams going into Event 3: Pro1 Montreal, CrossFit Resurrection, 1855, Rhapsody, C2X CrossFit, and Team Koda.
Virtual matchup: Pro1 Montreal, CrossFit Resurrection, 1855, Rhapsody, C2X CrossFit, and Team Koda.
After a clean sweep on Day 1, Pro1 Montreal continued to dominate the team competition on Saturday. The women’s capacity to do high-volume muscle-ups proved to be a game-changer as Pro1 Montreal won Event 3 in 12:25, the only team to finish under 13 minutes.
The battle for second was between 1855 and Team Koda, and it came down to a race on the rings. On the last transition, 1855 ran to the rings while Team Koda walked, giving 1855 a 2-second victory for a second-place finish in the event.
Team Event 4
Event 4 called for max snatches and clean and jerks, one each for the men and women.
The top six teams going into Event 4: Pro1 Montreal, 1855, CrossFit Resurrection, Rhapsody, Team Koda, and C2X CrossFit.
Pro1 Montreal – Photo by @sam_beriault
The heavyweights came out to play for Team Event 4, and it was Rhapsody who finally broke Pro1 Montreal’s winning streak, taking first with a total of 998 lb. Rhapsody had put up a consistent performance going into Event 4 with top-six finishes in each of the first three events. An event win at the end of Day 2 set the team up nicely in fourth overall going into Day 3.
View the leaderboard for the CrossFit Atlas games here.
Two more men and women will earn a chance to compete in Madison at the Last-Chance Qualifier, this July 2-4. Click here to see the events, and tune in to games.crossfit.com, YouTube, and Instagram for updates all weekend long.
Featured image by @sam_beriault