Week Four in Review: Canada East

March 19, 2012

Chris Cooper

On the surface, not much changed at the top of the Canada East Leaderboard during 12.4. When we dig a bit deeper, though, we see that races for the No. 1 position are becoming very tight, with mere reps separating the top three women and top five men, and single points separating the top teams.

Team
They had to win 12.4 to do it, but CrossFit Brossard has taken the lead in the Team category with 11 points overall. CrossFit Altitude is sitting right next to them, one point behind, and it appears L'Usine is starting to make a solid bid. They sit in 3rd place, 5 points back. With athletes leaving each Team to compete as Individuals at Regionals, which will have the depth to defeat all the other Teams?

The race for 12.4 dominance was very tight, with only 20 muscle-ups, spread across six athletes on each Team, being the difference between 1st and 6th place this week.

At the bottom of the top 30, several teams are within mere points of one another: the Catalyst Green Army is tied at 28th with CrossFit Kingston, who had a great 12.4. Both are one point behind CrossFit Guelph...but only two points ahead of CrossFit London. Dreams could be dashed (or made) on 12.5.

Men
While Albert-Dominic Larouche put distance between himself and the 2nd-place contender (now Peter D'Amore,) the hottest male athlete out there may be Zach Hebert. Hebert won 12.4 in Canada East, achieving a full round and 12 extra wall balls, and is a very strong contender despite his 6th-place rank. His 12.1 score has been his albatross (he finished tied for 59th) but earned 2nd place on 12.2, and also won 12.3. His place at Regionals looks certain, and the events could certainly go his way there.

Jay Rhodes had a solid 4th event, finishing with 27 muscle-ups, but Peter D'Amore climbed from 4th to 2nd place by finishing the round at the buzzer.

Women
Camille Leblanc-Bazinet retained control of 1st place in the Region, but an interesting pattern is emerging. Michele Letendre won the event in the region, grinding out two more muscle-ups than Leblanc-Bazinet – each of the top women have won two events.

Britney Holmberg, with 33 points to Leblanc-Bazinet's 6 and Letendre's 12, seems to have solidified 3rd place with a 249-point performance in 12.4. She finished in 2nd place last week, and could do well next, but is far enough back from 2nd and far enough ahead of 4th that third in Canada East seems to be her destiny in the Open.

Amelie Gagnon and Alexa Bergeron inched up to 4th and 5th, respectively, by turning in 256-point performances on 12.4.  Also notable, Kate Walsh continues to move further up the Leaderboard each week, finishing 28th, 23rd, 13th and 6th in Canada East; she now hovers in 8th position, tied with Tina Popp.

Canada East, to an outsider, would appear to be all but decided in the Individual categories. A look through the statistics, though, makes for a very promising Regional event.