Amid Lockdown Italy Changes Sanctional to Online Only, Invites to Remain
The CrossFit Italian Showdown today announced that the Sanctional scheduled for the end of April would no longer go ahead as planned after the Italian government ordered the entire country on lockdown including a ban on sporting events. Organizers will replace the event with an online competition instead to determine who will get the invitations to the CrossFit Games. Schools and universities across the country will be closed until at least April 3.
The Italian Showdown postponement is also joined by both the German Throwdown and Asia CrossFit Championship.
What they’re saying: “This is going to have a hard hit on all of us, both on the everyday life side and on the financial side: not only all the sport events are suspended nationwide, also all the gyms are closed and we are all recommended to stay at home,” said event director Carlo Strati in a press release Wednesday.
- Due to the uncertain timeline of the lockdown, Strati said “there is no reason to wait any longer to make a decision. Running the Italian Showdown in April is not an option, not even postponing it to July.”
- Instead, the competition will take place online.
- Organizers “have worked with CrossFit HQ” to find a solution but will need time to review details and “have it approved by CrossFit HQ.”
- Strati also noted that the situation is very serious for the affiliate community across Italy suffering from losses in revenue: “We are losing money, but that’s the only way. It’s a real emergency.”
Here’s what we know so far:
- Dates: The dates will be announced in “a couple of weeks.”
- Workouts: There will be “will be totally new workouts for the online competition.”
- Format: The format will be modeled after the CrossFit Open. They “will release the workouts, then the athletes will have a time frame to load scores and videos.”
- Judging: “Videos will be reviewed by our judges and supervised by CrossFit HQ.”
- Participants: Only the 1,500 athletes currently registered will be able to compete and all divisions will be allowed to compete as planned: elite, age groups and teams.
- Games Invites: Elite individuals and teams will still receive an invite to the CrossFit Games.
- Prizes: Podium finishers for all divisions will be awarded prizes.