Recap: Brazil CrossFit Championship, Down Under CrossFit Championship, and ROGUE Invitational

It was a jam-packed weekend of CrossFit Sanctionals™, with the Brazil CrossFit Championship, the Down Under Championship, and the ROGUE Invitational all happening simultaneously. Brazil, Australia, and the United States all got to play host to some of the world’s fittest athletes who were competing for a spot to the 2019 CrossFit Games this summer.

The Brazil CrossFit Championship and Down Under Championship got underway a day earlier than the ROGUE Invitational, but all three events concluded on Sunday, May 20th.

Here’s a breakdown of how all the three events panned out, along with the top three men, women, and teams that earned their spot at this year’s Games.

Brazil CrossFit Championship

The Brazil CrossFit Championship wrapped up with a thrilling final event, “The Last Man Standing,” which distinguished Team Pro1, Will Moorad, and Mekenzie Riley as champions. Team Pro1 and individual male athlete, Moorad earned their invite to the 2019 CrossFit Games. Riley on the other hand, finished in the top 20 for the Open, so her victory was handed off to Paige Semenza, who finished in second place at the event. Here’s a rundown of how the weekend went in São Paulo.

Team Pro1 finished with 684 points to return to the Games this summer. They put together a complete performance throughout the weekend, closing out the competition on the final day against Team CRSC.

1. Team Pro1
2. Team CRSC
3. Invictus X
4. Indomaveis
5. East Woodbridge

Moorad held and maintained his lead heading into the final day and was able to edge out Saxon Panchik for an invite to the Games. Moorad’s last appearance was in 2014 where he finished 14^th overall.

1. Will Moorad
2. Saxon Panchik
3. Spencer Panchik
4. Sean Sweeney
5. Alexandre Caron

It was a Mekenzie Riley show on the women’s side, but Paige Semenza rightfully gets her ticket to the Games. In the “Last Woman, or Man Standing” event, it was just Riley and Semenza left on the floor. The two women battled it out, but it was Riley who pulled away for the victory.

1. Mekenzie Riley
2. Paige Semenza
3. Carolyne Prevost
4. Cecilia Ramirez Villamil
5. Alison Scudds

Down Under CrossFit Championship

The race was a hot one in Australia, with the X-Terminators team narrowly beating out Project X for the team invite to the Games. Matt Mcleod earned his first invite to the Games, and Amanda Barnhart picked up the win, however it was Alethea Boon who also got a special win on the day receiving the official invite to the Games.

The X-terminators came well equipped to dominate at the Down Under Championship with James Newbury and Madeline Sturt on their roster. However, while Newbury and Stuart helped the X-terminators open up and close the competition on top, both athletes will be competing as individuals at the Games this summer, and two different athletes will be subbed in to compete at the Games.

1. X-terminators
2. Project X
3. 64 Army Black
4. Renegade Z
5. Starr Strength Black

Matt Mcleod has been all over the globe this year trying to qualify for the Games, so it was only right that he finally managed to earn his invite to the Games at the Down Under Championship. Mcleod will be heading to his first CrossFit Games this summer.

1. Matt Mcleod
2. Jacob Heppner
3. Matt Reilly
4. Jay Crouch
5. Luke De Jonge

On the women’s side, Amanda Barnhart, in just her first appearance since last year’s game blew away the competition to win the Down Under Championship. However, Barnhart, Jamie Greene, and Courtney Haley have already qualified for the Games, so Alethea Boon gets the invite to her fourth CrossFit Games. Boon is looking incredibly strong, and seems to be carrying a lot of momentum since her showing at the Asia CrossFit Championship in April.

1. Amanda Barnhart
2. Jamie Greene
3. Courtney Haley
4. Alethea Boon
5. Lindsey Vaughan

ROGUE Invitational

To sum up the ROGUE Invitational, it lived up to the hype. The ROGUE Invitational featured the top male and female athletes from the 2018 Games.

CrossFit OC3 earned the team victory and a ticket to the Games, while Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey controlled the competition with their dominance. Fraser and Toomey were the 2018 CrossFit Games champions and already have earned their spot in the 2019 Games, so that means Chandler Smith gets a spot in the games on the men’s side, and Rachel Garibay receives the spot on the women’s side.

CrossFit OC3 showed that would have been the best team during school recess, when they beat out CrossFit Invictus Back Bay in the Invitational’s final event of tug-of-war. CrossFit OC3 makes their return to the CrossFit Games after finishing in third place year.

1. CrossFit OC3
2. CrossFit Invictus Back Bay
3. CrossFit Mayhem Freedom
4. Don’t Stop
5. CrossFit 41

Remember how Fraser has been winning for almost five-years straight now? Us too. The guy casually came away with another huge victory. Across the board, the top male individual athletes put on a remarkable show.

1. Mat Fraser
2. Patrick Vellner
3. Cole Sager
4. Streat Hoerner
5. Chandler Smith

Toomey, like Fraser, is another athlete that can’t be beaten. She ended the competition on top, finishing out strong with the final day’s events. It really wasn’t much of a surprise to see the second through fifth place finishers all being top female athletes who have already qualified for the Games.

Garibay will get to attend her first CrossFit Games as an individual athlete, after last year competing with team Don’t Stop.

1. Tia-Clair Toomey
2. Sara Sigmundsdottir
3. Annie Thorisdottir
4. Katrin Davidsdottir
5. Kristin Holte
6. Rachel Garibay*

With another Sanctional filled weekend in the books, we’re now another step closer to the 2019 CrossFit Games. Six more individual athletes and three more teams have been added to the 2019 CrossFit Games roster, and with only two Sanctionals remaining, spots are becoming incredibly thin.

Feature image from @rogueinvitational Instagram page.