The third week of the CrossFit® Open is now behind us, and 17.3 was arguably the toughest workout we’ve seen thus far on the 2017 season. It not only involved a time limit, but a brutal ladder on squat snatches that cut a majority of workouts short.
One of the athletes who crushed this past week’s test was 18 year old George Sterner. He flew through 17.3 and finished with final time of 18:17, which earned him 5th on the main leaderboard for the workout. What helped his score the most was how we went 63/63 without a missed snatch attempt. His score tops multiple elite CrossFit athletes such as Rich Froning, Noah Ohlsen, and Sam Dancer, to name a few.
This score shows promise for Sterner’s upcoming year and workouts. This year he had to move out of the teen division into the more competitive individual men category. Here he’ll be going against some of CrossFit’s most elite athletes including the fittest man on earth Mat Fraser and many more.
Sterner is currently tied for 3rd in the North Central region and tied for 18th on the main leaderboard with Christian Harris. His first two weeks performances are just as impressive as 17.3. He recorded a time of 11:06 and 225-reps for 17.1 and ranked 189th. In 17.2 he finished with 216-reps and a final time of 11:21, which earned him 81st.
Hopefully Sterner can keep up the impressive performances as we approach the final two weeks of the Open. It will be interesting to see how he performs in the individual men category and if he can maintain the momentum he’s created moving forward.
Last year, Sterner took second at the Reebok CrossFit Games for the 16-17 teen division. This is an impressive feat, but it’s hard to compare to the ever-changing and competitive individual men division.
Feature image from @george_sterner Instagram page.