“Exactly what I needed to do:” Noah Ohlsen finishes top 10 in 19.3, inches closer to qualifying

Week 3 of the 2019 CrossFit Games Open gave Noah Ohlsen an invaluable opportunity: to finish high up on the leaderboard and make up some ground.

“I went to bed before it was announced Thursday so I didn’t see it [until] Friday morning! [I] liked it when I saw it.”

Ohlsen, a five-time CrossFit Games athlete, wants to qualify for the CrossFit Games through the Open this year, but had a rough start with a 796th place finish on 19.1.

While his start was uncharacteristically low on the leaderboard, both 19.2 and 19.3 show off what Ohlsen is capable of.

Coming off a stellar 32nd place finish worldwide on 19.2, Ohlsen “knew [19.3 would] be good but didn’t know how good” until it was all over. His first attempt was a lightning fast 8:11, but lightning fast isn’t good enough when every rep counts.

When I asked him when he was about to hit his repeat, he called his shot: “[I’m] about to go sub 8.”

And sub 8 he went, finishing 19.3 in a blistering 7:54, good enough for 9th worldwide at the time of writing this.

With two weeks left in the Open, Ohlsen is a long shot away from getting in qualifying range. In the past four years only six athletes have come from outside of the top 50 after week 3 to finish in the top 30.

“[I’m] excited to see if I’ll be able to pull it off!” Ohlsen said.