Week Two in Review: Latin America

March 18, 2013

Thomas Patton

Latin America CrossFitters gathered together at their boxes to complete Open Workout 13.2.
 

With two weeks of results of the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Open already done with, we noticed that late morning on Saturdays has been the day of choice for the Latin America athletes to get together at their boxes and complete the Open Workouts.

That being said, we have also seen a majority of top scores being strategically posted on Sunday evening with very little time remaining before the close of submissions. These top scores usually shift the Leaderboard, but many of the names that appear at the top can now be somewhat predicted.

Just as with 13.1, Thursday was a slow day for submitting scores. By late Thursday and early Friday we had more or less the same names we had seen the week before by that point, with men showing a top score of 270 from Luis Renato Oliveira from CrossFit Brazil, and a 306 by Solange Jean-Francois Mon from CrossFit TTC in Panama.

Nonetheless, the women still had a few more reps in them. Mon was moved from first to eighth place by Sunday of 13.2 after a few 314s to 316s from Brasil, Mexico, Ecuador, and of course, the Cayman Island who also brought in two 325s from Wanda Brenton and Jenn Chailler. Both women’s scores contributed to the CrossFit 7 Mile team that represented Latin America at the Games last year.

Chailler is also known for stirring up trouble during the Open. She came in third worldwide last year on the seven minutes of burpees, outdone only by Andrea Ager and Kristan Clever from Southern California.

 Tarasa Barnett, our two-time Latin America CrossFit Games athlete, came in seventh in 13.2 with 314 reps, and combined with her second place in 13.1, she is now second on the region overall.

A few other female names we will have to watch these next few weeks are Ana C. Caldas, Itzel Cadena, Ashley Puschman, Courtney Modecki, Marion Ingrassia and Antonelli Nicole.

The Men’s side of the Leaderboard remained predictable in relation to 13.1. The same set of experienced competitors and dark horses have proven fitter than everybody else with both these classic CrossFit types of couplets and triplets we have seen so far.

Our 2012 Games competitor Orlando Trejo from CrossFit Peru scored a 320 for a first place in the workout in our region once again. And Rodrigo Valenzuela, from CrossFit Cordillera in Chile once again came in second.

 Batuque Iribarren from CrossFit Unidos in Argentina and Kevin Vega from CrossFit Santa Marta Colombia have alternated fifth and eighth place on the first two workouts and are both tied for third place.

The top eight is rounded out by our darkhorses Sebastian Stange from CrossFit Atakama in Chile and Francisco Javier from CrossFit Jundiaí in Brazil. Following them in seventh is Chris Irwin from CrossFit St. Thomas, who took third place in last year’s Latin America Regional. Matthew Barnett in eighth from CrossFit Cayman and our Games competitor in 2011.

Although it is still too early to speculate on Teams, the fun has already begun. We have once again Team CrossFit 7 Mile quickly taking first place on the Leaderboard and Team CrossFit Cayman in second place eager to steal that first spot.

Both teams have already won the single spot from Latin America to go to the CrossFit Games in past years. Last year, CrossFit Cayman fought closely for first place, but in the end CrossFit 7 Mile won all the events at Regionals.