A week after Wodapalooza — the second of this year’s Sactional® competition qualifiers for the 2019 CrossFit Games — the Australian CrossFit Championship has wrapped up, complete with the season’s first repeat winner.
James Newbury, Maddie Sturt, and Team Project X have emerged after a weekend of fitness tests to secure invites to Madison.
Veteran CrossFit Games athlete and 2013 Games Champion Sam Briggs actually won the event, but since she had already secured qualification after winning the Dubai CrossFit Championships back in December, the women’s invite was extended to second-place Sturt. Briggs won 8 out of 11 events — include the first five in a row — on her way to victory, a stunningly dominant performance from one of the oldest athletes in the field. Simone Arthur placed third for the women.
Second place on the men’s side went to Bayden Brown, with Zeke Grove in third place overall.
Newbury, Sturt, and Briggs are all multi-time Individual Games athletes.
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On the team side, the stacked team of sport veterans Jessica Coughlan, Harriet Roberts, Khan Porter, and Brandon Swan took first place to punch their ticket to the 2019 CrossFit Games.
This year is the first under the new Games qualification system, where privately-run Sanctional competitions have taken the place of Regionals as a main path to earning spots at the sport’s biggest event. National Champions determined by the upcoming CrossFit Open, as well as athletes receiving at-large bids from CrossFit HQ, can also qualify.
The 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games run from July 29th through August 4th in Madison, Wisconsin.
Featured image: @crossfitgames and @trentcallaghanphotography on Instagram
