2024 CrossFit Games Asia Semifinal Winners and Qualifiers: Seher Kaya and Ivan Kukartsev Come Out on Top
Heading into the 2024 Asia Semifinal by the Far East Throwdown in Busan, South Korea, all eyes were on Turkey’s Seher Kaya and Russia’s Artur Semenov.
Remind me: Kaya, a two-time CrossFit Games athlete who trains at CrossFit Oslo in Norway, finished 23rd at the Games last year and is easily Asia’s top CrossFit athlete ever. Semenov, meanwhile, has represented Asia at the Games the last two seasons.
- However, after two days of competition in Korea, neither of them was in the driver’s seat.
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Kaya sat in second, three points behind Korea’s Seungyeon Choi, a 2021 and 2022 CrossFit Games athlete who was sidelined last season because of a shoulder injury. Semenov was in fourth, 15 points away from the cutline.
But as Sunday played out — with three Games invites up for grabs on the women’s side and two on the men’s side — both Kaya and Semenov stepped up.
The result: After a tight back-and-forth battle, Kaya passed Choi for the overall win, and Semenov steadily climbed from fifth to second overall, punching his third ticket behind fellow Russian Ivan Kukartsev, who took first.
- Worth noting: Kukartsev was a bit of a question mark heading into the weekend. The 26-year-old topped the Quarterfinals leaderboard in Asia (and was 88th worldwide); however, he had never competed at Semifinals as an individual before.
But after six events in Korea, Kukartsev proved he is legit and will join Semenov at the 2024 CrossFit Games in Fort Worth, TX, this summer. He is joined by Kaya, Choi, and third-place finisher Dawon Jung, who finally punched her ticket after missing Games qualification by just one spot in both 2022 and 2023.
How It Played Out
The Women
Kaya came out hot, taking an event win on Event 4 in a time of 9:08, but Choi finished right behind her in second. This left the two long-time Asian Semifinal rivals in a points tie heading into the final two events.
- The next event belonged to Choi, while Kaya finished fourth, just behind Jung, who started the day back in fifth overall.
Choi entered the final event nine points ahead of Kaya, while Jung, sitting in fourth heading into the final event, needed to gain some serious points to pass Russia’s Anna Ivanova for the third spot.
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- She did just that. Jung put forth another solid performance, good enough for fourth, while Ivanova finished 13th in the final event.
Meanwhile, Kaya took another event win, her fourth of the competition, while Choi finished well back in eighth, giving Kaya the win by 12 points.
The Men
Semenov entered the day behind three other Russian athletes: Kukartsev, Ilyas Kuliev, and Anton Yakolev, respectively. And while Semenov was good on Sunday in Korea, he wasn’t dominant and, in fact, never sat above the cutline until the very end.
- On the first event of the day, Kuliev and Yakolev both beat Semenov. They both posted times of 7:59, tying them for second, while Semenov was fourth.
What ultimately saved Semenov after that was that both the other Russians had a finish outside the top 10.
- Yakolev fell out of contention on Event 5 – the snatch ladder – finishing way back in 26th, while Semenov finished seventh and Kuliev eighth. This meant that Kuliev entered the final event with an 18-point lead over Semenov.
- Event 6 was Kuliev’s time to struggle. He finished back in 11th, while Semenov put up another consistent, but not flashy, fourth-place finish, allowing him to gain 21 points over Kuliev to second place by just three points.
But the bigger story of the weekend was the other Russian, Kukartsev. After leading all weekend, he topped off his rookie Semifinals competition with a second event win in the final event, helping him take a 36-point overall victory.
Team Recap
Most of the action for the teams in Asia came down to the battle between KT CrossFit Kolesnikov Team and CrossFit Marvel Black Mayhem.
With only one spot up for grabs this weekend, fans knew that the fight for first would be fierce.
- During Quarterfinals, KT CrossFit Kolesnikov Team dominated, taking first in every event. But CrossFit Mayhem Marvel Black also qualified for the Games out of Asia in 2023 (there were two spots last year) and was not going down without a fight.
Throughout the weekend, the two teams battled back and forth, but ultimately, KT CrossFit Kolesnikov Team walked away with four of five event wins and a 12-point victory over CrossFit Marvel Black Mayhem.
This is the team’s second time punching their ticket to the Games (in 2023, they competed as CrossFit Fly High Kolesnikov Team).
The Big Picture
Though Asia hasn’t traditionally fielded the top CrossFit athletes in the world (with the exception of Roman Khrennikov, who now lives in the United States), the tight races on the leaderboard and overall performances this weekend in Korea speak to the fact that the athletes from the Far East are becoming forces to be reckoned with.
Could this be the year we see an athlete from Asia break into the top 20 at the CrossFit Games?
Featured image: @crossfitgames / Instagram