Fresh off Quarterfinals Win, Reggie Fasa is Ready to Showcase His Hard Work at Semifinals

The CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown will take place this weekend, June 11-13, pitting several top European athletes against each other with tickets to the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games on the line. The United Kingdom’s Reggie Fasa will use the opportunity to showcase the hard work he has put in since becoming a full-time CrossFit athlete, and he will attempt to reach Madison for the first time in his career. 

Remind me: A former Rugby player for the Newcastle Falcons and the North of England, Fasa first competed in the Open in 2017. He placed 109th his first year before making a steady rise up the leaderboard. His progress includes placing 11th in 2019 and fourth in 2020. Once the calendar turned to January, Fasa quit his job and pursued CrossFit full-time, ultimately winning the European Quarterfinals with a strong performance. 

• “We knew we were going to qualify for Semis,” Fasa told the Morning Chalk Up. “But we didn’t know whereabouts we were going to qualify. When the workouts got released, I was buzzing to see the four-rep max front squat.”
• “We had been working hard in the offseason to get my strength numbers up there because my engine has been pretty decent. I showed the gang, fitness-wise, that I could dig it with the big lads. Miami, I won the rowing event, and it was pure fitness. We just needed the skills to get better and the strength needed to go up so I could be more well-rounded.”

The strength work paid off for Fasa. He hit 400 pounds on the four-rep front squat, sixth-best in Europe. For comparison, Spain’s Fabian Beneito placed fifth with 401 pounds. Though Fasa performed more consistently than his peer in all four events en route to his Quarterfinals win. He also topped several CrossFit Games veterans in Jonne Koski, Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson, and Frederik Aegidius among others.  

• “I was buzzing [to win]. I don’t want to shy away. I put myself in the field with athletes, the big names who’ve been to the Games already,” Fasa said. “It just proves yourself, even more, when you turn those names over and shows off your hard work. I was buzzing to go against BK and Koski and all that.”
• “With how the year’s been for everyone around the world with COVID, everyone kept their cards quite close to the chest with fitness. I was nervous. Obviously, you want to qualify. But you’d always see a big gap between the big lads at the top, and then there’d be another field, and then another field down from that who are borderline.” 

Virtual fitness: The CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown will not take place in a packed arena. All the events of the weekend will all be virtual due to COVID-19, meaning that Fasa and his peers will continue competing at their respective gyms while filming their workouts.

• “I knew with COVID that we might have to travel and quarantine for two weeks,” Fasa said. “I feel like it will be less stressful to do it in the comfort zone where I am at right now with the gym. I can still get my friends down to come watch me, my family.”
• “I’ll still get that buzz of an atmosphere with the crowd around me, but I would still love to do it head-to-head with the big names around me. Just to prove myself a bit more. You find another gear when you are competing alongside that type of people.” 

While Fasa will not physically face off with the other top male athletes in his region, he will have the benefit of continuing to push himself against his training partner, Tayla Kalise Howe. Like Mat Fraser before him, Fasa trains with a female athlete on a daily basis. Howe will also compete at the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown after finishing sixth in the European Quarterfinals. 

• “Because [Tayla’s] a girl, it takes the maliciousness away from competing together,” Fasa explained. “It takes the sting out of beating them all the time or getting beat all of the time.”
• “You’ve still got that same push. You still want to beat each other, but it’s not that malicious in the competitive sense of things. You drag each other along rather than you want to beat each other.”   

The bottom line: When Fasa kicks off the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown, he will not do so in front of screaming fans or next to the big names from his division. However, the change will not impact his preparation or performance. He will still push himself during the events while putting all of his hard work on display and striving to outperform some Games veterans.