Under the lights of Farrington Field, athletes competed in a two-part event: a 1600-meter run followed by a sprint course with two sandbag carries after a built-in rest period.
In Event 4, athletes were scored based on their combined rank in the two events.
While it was under the lights, it was still hot. Temperatures registered at 88°F/31°C for the start of the women’s heat at the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Individual Event 4: Track and Field
For time:
- 1,600-meter run
Then, at the 12-minute mark:
- 50-yard sprint
- 50-yard bag carry (70/100 lb)
- 75-yard sprint
- 75-yard bag carry
- 100-yard sprint
Final Results
| Place | Women | Men |
| 1. | Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr | Ricky Garard |
| 2. | Haley Adams | Luke Parker |
| 3. | Aimee Cringle | Roman Khrennikov |
| 4. | Gabriela Migała | James Sprague |
| 5. | Paige Semenza | Patrick Vellner |
Women’s Division
In the first heat, Abigail Domit took the lead immediately, looking to set a fast pace for the 1600-meter run.
- After the first lap, Brooke Wells and Alexis Raptis tracked Domit down. Then, surprisingly, Raptis looked to push the pace after 800 meters but may have thought her third lap was actually the final one and went too fast too early.
Over the final lap, Wells tracked down Raptis. It was the latter who won in a photo finish of 5:34.01.
- In the sprint portion, Wells held the lead when athletes dropped the second sandbag.
On the final sprint, though, Australian rookie Georgia Pryor flew down the field and won the first sprint easily with a time of 1:16.64.
On the other end of the field, Chloe Gauvin-David finished second in the sprint at 1:17.57.
- Brooke Wells took the top combined score in heat one with a total score of five (second in the 1600 meter and third in the sprint).
A lead pack quickly formed in the 1600-meter run during the second heat. It was comprised of Haley Adams, Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Aimee Cringle, Emily Rolfe, Bethany Flores, and Hattie Kanyo.
- This group stuck together for the majority of the race until Toomey-Orr picked up the pace for the final 200 meters.
Toomey-Orr took the top time at 5:30.16, followed by Cringle and Adams for the top time in the heat.
In the sprint portion, Toomey-Orr and Paige Semenza were in a tight race for the first leg of the sandbag carry before the six-time champ pulled away.
- Gabriela Migala came from behind to challenge Toomey-Orr on the final sprint but ran out of space to catch up. Toomey-Orr took the sprint with a time of 1:13.10.
Toomey-Orr won both portions of the event, taking the win for the third time in four events at the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Men’s Division
In the men’s first heat, Luke Parker and Austin Hatfield built an early lead.
On lap three, Parker pushed the pace and created a sizable gap between himself and Hatfield.
- As they crossed the finish line, Parker (5:06.02) finished significantly ahead of Hatfield, and Pete Ellis sprinted his way to third place in the heat.
In the sprint portion of the first heat, Parker built a slight lead on the second sandbag.
Parker, along with Travis Mayer, were in a head-to-head race for the final 100 yards.
- Mayer couldn’t close the three-yard gap on Parker, who took the second portion in a time of 1:06.92
Ricky Garard showed the world his running prowess, creating a 50-meter lead over the field in the first two minutes of the final heat.
- Garard was comfortable enough in the lead to try and pump up the crowd over the final 400 meters as he finished in 4:55.13.
Roman Khrennikov separated himself from the rest of the field during the third lap to easily finish in second.
Justin Medeiros surprisingly finished at the back of the pack, coming in second to last for the event.
- Overall leader James Sprague took the lead in the sprint after the second sandbag.
But, it was Garard who hit the turbo button on the final 100 yards to also take the sprint finish in a time of 1:04.89.
Patrick Vellner in “ghost”-like fashion also tracked down and passed Sprague on the final stretch.
Garard’s firsts in both parts of heat two were good enough for the event win, while Luke Parker’s double from the first heat earned him second in the event.
Friday Wrap-Up
At the end of Friday, Toomey-Orr found herself in a familiar position on top of the leaderboard with 382 points.
Haley Adams sits in second place, 30 points behind Toomey-Orr. It’s been an impressive couple of days for Adams, who returned to competition in 2024 after sitting out the 2023 season for personal reasons.
- Emily Rolfe enters the weekend tied with Adams. While this is uncharted territory for her at the CrossFit Games, Rolfe looked relaxed in the overall lead at Wodapalooza in 2023 before a calf injury forced her to withdraw.
James Sprague finds himself in the leader’s jersey going into Saturday with 346 points. The second-year Games athlete has been consistent with two seventh-place finishes and two fourth-place finishes.
In second place is Roman Khrennikov with 337 points. Khrennikov also showed consistent finishes over the first two days and has two third-place event finishes so far.
- In third is Brent Fikowski with 324 points. Fikowski finished directly behind Khrennikov in both the 2023 CrossFit Games and the 2023 Rogue Invitational.
Patrick Vellner did Patrick Vellner things on Friday, climbing from 33rd after Event 1 all the way up to seventh place.
It’ll be a fun competition to watch this weekend on the men’s side, as no one has shown to be the runaway favorite after two days of competition.
Up Next
Athletes will face three events on Saturday before the field is cut to 30 athletes in each division. The event is based on Chad which is 1000 step-ups for time.
As Dave Castro has hinted, there will be a twist. The Games site lists the workout description as:
For time:
- 1,000 step-ups (35/45 lb)
- *Completed as 250 trips
Featured image: Scotty Freymond
