If you’re wondering how the reintroduced Europe Regional has affected perennial competitors, it hasn’t.
“For me, it’s no different,” explained Kristin Holte, who last year won the Meridian Regional, after she checked in to the Europe Regional on Thursday at the Velodrom in Berlin, Germany.
She continued: “There are so many good athletes, and you can never underestimate anyone.”
This year, Holte is competing in the reformulated Europe Regional, which previously existed in name from 2010-2014. After those five years of competition, Games organizers redrew that Europe Regional’s boundaries and renamed it the Meridian Regional that included both northern and southern Europe, as well as Africa and the Middle East. But this year, there is both a Europe Regional and a Meridian Regional. The former includes the Europe Central and Europe North regions, while the latter includes the Europe South and Middle East Africa regions.
But while the new boundaries won’t change which top athletes qualify for the CrossFit Games, the shift does create opportunities for others, observers agreed.
“You get more athletes to go to Regionals, especially Brits and Eastern European athletes,” said Europe Regional color commentator Mads Jacobsen, who founded CrossFit Nordic in 2009 and is a former member of CrossFit Inc. Seminar Staff.
Steven Fawcett already has seen as much.
The 30-year-old was one of the first British men to qualify for the Games in 2015 and last year led the first British team, CrossFit JST, to the same place. He noted that more U.K. athletes and teams qualified for this year’s Europe Regional than last year’s Meridian Regional and “deservedly so.”
Specifically, the number of U.K. athletes more than doubled from eight at 2017’s Meridian Regional to 20 at this year’s Europe Regional. Meanwhile, the number of U.K. teams almost quadrupled from three qualifying in 2017 to 11 this year.
In the long term, having both the Europe and Meridian Regionals will make for more European representation at the Games, noted competitors Frederik Aegidius and Lukas Högberg.
“Now we’re starting to prove that the guys can compete worldwide and be in the top 10,” said Högberg, of Sweden.
Jacobsen predicted Scandinavian athletes might start moving to the Europe South Region in hopes of qualifying for the Games. But, he added, their convergence would only raise the level of competition.
“The influx of great capacity will influence the region,” Jacobsen said. “It will elevate the sport.”
In the short term, however, the reestablished Europe Regional will do little to reshuffle the names atop the Leaderboard, he added.
“Doesn’t change who goes to the Games.”
Training protocols also remain unchanged.
“It still is very competitive, so you can’t lay off a little bit,” stressed Fawcett, who is coaching several athletes at the Europe Regional.
And if an athlete makes adjustments to his or her training based on the number of Games-qualifying spots at Regionals, that’s a failure in approach, said Aegidius, a native of Denmark who lives in Iceland.
For their part, both Högberg and Holte said the reinstated Europe Regional didn’t do them any favors.
Högberg’s training was “still the same,” and the Regional will still be “really hard.”
Not just really hard, but more difficult than last year, Holte said.
“I still think that the Europe Regional is the hardest one.”
For this reason, she maintains a humble state of mind.
“I am always going in thinking there’s a 50-50 chance I’ll make it to the Games.”
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Men
Roman Khrennikov (185)
Lukas Högberg (165)
Adrian Mundwiler (164)
Sigardur Þrasterson (155)
Andrey Ganin (153)
Women
Laura Horvath (190)
Ragneidur Sara Sigmundsdottir (185)
Kristin Holte (175)
Annie Thorisdottir (170)
Gabriela Migała (167)
Teams
Team Punt Uit (195)
CrossFit Fabriken (164)
Team Nordvest B (153)
Maxpuls Spartans (149)
Soyuz Team (144)
For complete details, visit the Leaderboard.
