Mayhem, Holte, and Fikowski Dominate Day 2 in China
The second day of competition at the Asia CrossFit Championships is in the books. Teams and Individuals took on another pair of workouts that ramped up the skill and suffering that left many struggling to finish within the time cap.
The teams tackled muscle-ups, thrusters, and snatches in same-gender pairs before the worm made another appearance for ten rounds of a team DT variation. Individuals started the day with a Concept2 triathlon on the bike, rower, and ski erg, before finishing with their own three round triplet of thrusters, muscle-ups, and snatches.
Teams
The first workout of the day highlighted a stark contrast between the best and the rest, as the muscle-ups in event three proved too tall of a task. Not a single team from the first two heats managed to even finish the initial female portion of the workout.
That changed quickly in the final heat, as Lauren Fisher and Regan Huckaby from Invictus Grown Strong breezed through their segment and passing off a small lead over the rest of the field to their male pair, Rasmus Andersen and Tommy Vinas.
Vinas and Andersen managed to fight off a fast charging Rich Froning and Dre Strohm all the way until the final 20 snatches of the workout. Froning got to the barbell four reps behind Vinas but cycled through the 165-lb snatches quicker to pull Mayhem ahead at the very last moment, smashing the buzzer emphatically and giving Mayhem Freedom their third straight event win.
Event four was more of the same, as Mayhem Freedom won yet again, but narrowly missed finishing under the timecap. Not only was their proficiency with the worm on display, but they also used excellent communication during the shoulder to overhead reps when they got out of sync to avoid costly no-reps and keep their distance ahead of Project X to stay perfect for the weekend.
- Mayhem Freedom — 4 points
- (tie) Invictus Grown Strong & Project X — 14 points
Men
Brent Fikowski and Kristof Horvath, the top two men after day one, picked up right where they left off in event three. Fikowski utilized time signals from his coach in the stands, Brute Strength’s Nick Fowler, early on to pace and stay just ahead of Horvath. Fikowski would win the event to extend his overall lead, but as has been the case at the halfway point, Horvath finished right behind Fikowski in 2nd to stay in contention.
In the true spirit of competition, South Korea’s Doomok Lim took the floor and made it through the majority of the event — including 4k on the rower — with only one hand after accidentally cutting his hand open with a knife, requiring stitches. The entire Luwan Gymnasium rallied behind Lim as he gave full effort up to the timecap.
For the first time this weekend, someone other than Brent Fikwoski won an event, and it was three-time Games individual Zeke Grove who broke the streak, winning event four to close the day. The Aussie pulled ahead early by going unbroken on the first round of 15 muscle-ups and never looked back. In an exciting race on the final round of snatches, Fikowski snuck past Chinese national champion Ant Haynes when Haynes failed his final rep, opening the door for Fikowski to move ahead and finish 3rd in the heat and fifth in the event.
- Brent Fikowski — 8 points
- Josh Woodhull — 17 points
- Ant Haynes — 18 points
Women
In a nearly identical result as Brent Fikowski in event three, overall leader Kristin Holte led wire-to-wire for her third win in as many events and Iceland’s Eik Gylfadottir passed up three women on the final 2k ski erg, finishing just behind Holte for her third 2nd place finish of the weekend. The result gave Gylfadottir added cushion between her and then 3rd place Alethea Boon who struggled to a 15th place finish in the event.
In event four, Eik Gylfadottir did her best to try and break Holte’s win streak, leading the pack through the first two of three rounds. On the final set of thrusters, Gylfadottir broke up her set of seven and Holte remained unbroken to seize the lead, and from there Holte cruised to another event win, leaving Gylfadottir in a race for 2nd with fellow Games vet Alethea Boon.
Gylfadottir managed to hold off Boon in the final set of snatches for her fourth straight 2nd place finish in a row and entrenching herself behind Holte on the overall leaderboard, leaving her in position to receive the invite to the Games on the women’s side going into the final day.
- Kristin Holte — 4 points
- Eik Gylfadottir — 8 points
- Chelsie Guardado — 26 points