Over the weekend, two CrossFit Sanctional™ competitions were held. The first Sanctional was the Asia CrossFit Championship that took place in Shanghai, China where Brent Fikowski, Kristin Holte, and CrossFit Mayhen Freedom came out on top. The second Sanctional held over the weekend was the CrossFit Italian Showdown.
The CrossFit Italian Showdown is not like your traditional CrossFit competition, and that’s what makes it so exciting. As opposed to the standard CrossFit competition that keeps the amount of competitors consistent throughout all of the events, the CrossFit Italian Showdown eliminates those not in the top positions in three different phases.
To kick off this year’s CrossFit Italian Showdown, over 1,000 athletes competed in phase one of the competition. After the first day, 280 athletes were admitted to compete in phase two. Once phase two came to a conclusion, only the top three athletes were admitted to compete in phase three for the teen, masters, and junior divisions, and the top five athletes for the open divisions — so who came out on top?
Top 5 Men
- Roman Khrennikov
- Scott Panchik
- Noah Ohlsen
- Lukas Esslinger
- Stefano Carosso
While he finished fourth at the Italian Showdown — as of right now — it appears Lukas Esslinger will receive the invite for the 2019 CrossFit Games. However, that has not been officially confirmed yet. Here’s why. Khrennikov took home fifth place at the Dubai CrossFit Championship behind Mat Fraser, Karl Gudmundsson, Willy Georges (France National Champion), and Travis Mayer all of whom have qualified for the Games through the CrossFit Open. Second place finisher Scott Panchik finished 11th in the Open, so the invite would then shift to Noah Ohlsen, but…
Ohlsen finished third at Wodapalooza behind Patrick Vellner and Mayer. Vellner came in 30th overall for the CrossFit Open, two shots shy of the blue qualification line. Devin Ford, who finished above the line, declined his invite and Rich Froning is (probably) going Team, so Vellner could bump up two spots for the overall Open, which would then shift the Wodapalooza invite to Ohlsen. IF this is the case and confirmed, then Esslinger will be heading to the 2019 CrossFit Games.
Top 5 Women
- Erin Vandendriessche
- Feeroozeh Saghafi
- Stephanie Chung
- Manon Angonese
- Manila Pennacchio
Unlike the men’s competition, the women’s was a bit more straight forward. First place Erin Vandendriessche will be receiving the invite to the 2019 CrossFit Games.
For more information about the remaining CrossFit Sanctional competitions, check out the 2019 CrossFit Games schedule!
Feature image from @crossfititalianshowdown Instagram page.
