2020 CrossFit Games competitor David Shorunke has withdrawn from the competition, according to a post on his Instagram page. Though he competed with CrossFit Nordic in the 2016 Games, placing 6th, this was Shorunke’s first individual showing.
Shorunke says that he’s been dealing with “lower back issues all season.” The combination of running and overhead squats in Nasty Nancy exacerbated the pain, and he was unable to finish the fifth event of the Games. After taking stock of his condition, Shorunke decided to opt-out of event 7 — Awful Annie. The 30-year old would have had to complete 150 GHD sit-ups and double-unders followed by 275 lb cleans for a rep scheme of 5-4-3-2-1.
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To punch his individual ticket to the Games, Shorunke managed to place third at the CrossFit Strength in Depth sanctional in 2019, he won the same event in January of 2020 in his hometown of London. He lives in Sweden and is affiliated with CrossFit Kungsholmen.
After completing day 1 of the 2020 Games, Shorunke was toward the bottom of the pack in 27th place. Though it’s disappointing that the third fittest man in the UK had to drop out, Shorunke is preserving his body, as placing in the top five was probably out of reach. His best performance was in the 1,000-meter row, where he tied for ninth with a time of 2:57.00, just a second and a half behind Men’s leader Mathew Fraser. Hopefully, Shorunke will recover fully and be able to give the Games another go next year.
That leaves 29 men who are all vying for a trip to The Ranch in Aromas, California, where the top five athletes in each division will compete for the title of Fittest on Earth and $300,000 each. You can follow our live leaderboard, and catch up on what you missed in day one of the 2020 CrossFit Games.
Featured image from @shorunke on Instagram
