“I’m the underdog, and I’m here to reclaim my crown.”
Those were the words of seven-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr on Friday at the 2024 Rogue Invitational in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Though it’s impossible (almost laughable) to consider Toomey-Orr — the undeniable G.O.A.T. — an “underdog,” Hungary’s Laura Horvath is the reigning Rogue Invitational champion, after all.
Remind me: Last year, Horvath beat the six-month postpartum Toomey-Orr and became the first athlete to top the Australian legend since the 2016 CrossFit Games.
But if Day 1 in Aberdeen is any indication, Horvath, who currently sits in third behind Gabi Migala, has an uphill battle to climb to repeat as champion this year.
- Toomey-Orr went three for three in event wins on Friday, the first time an athlete has done this at the Rogue Invitational.
With a perfect 300 points, she leads Migala by 25 points, while Horvath rounds out the top three with 210 points.
As for the men, the weekend is still young. With six events to go, it’s the 2023 CrossFit Games champion, Jeff Adler, who leads the way by 50 points over Ricky Garard.
After that, it’s a close race for the podium, with Dallin Pepper and Jayson Hopper both five points behind Garard in third and fourth, respectively. Chandler Smith, thanks to quiet but consistent performances, is 10 points behind them.
Here’s a full recap of the action from the first day.
Event 1: Quick Sand
The day started with a long 10-round workout of a sandbag carry and a 400-meter run (with a ruck on the athlete’s back during the first five rounds).
Quick Sand
10 rounds for time:
- Sandbag carry
- 400-meter run
The Men
The men’s side was all about two men who have long proven themselves to be great runners: Adler and Garard.
By the third round, the pair had already separated themselves from the pack, and they only continued to lengthen their lead from there.
Their back-and-forth battle continued through to the final round, where it came down to a photo finish in the final sprint, with Garard edging Adler out by two-tenths of a second.
- “I wanted to have a sprint finish and I was prepared for it…give the crowd something to cheer for,” Garard said after his win.
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Hopper also put in a strong performance, good enough for third, although he was more than a minute slower than either Garard or Adler.
James Sprague, the reigning Fittest Man on Earth, who just recovered from pneumonia in time to compete, was good enough for fourth. Brent Fikowski, competing for the final time before retirement, finished fifth.
The Women
Haley Adams set a time to beat at 21:37 in the first heat, the only athlete in that heat to go sub-22 minutes. Her time would not hold, though, as Toomey-Orr did what always does in Event 2…dominate.
- That being said, this year’s CrossFit Games silver medalist, Migala, hung tight with Toomey-Orr during the first four rounds. But as soon as Toomey-Orr dropped her ruck, she pulled away from Migala and snagged her first event win of the competition.
Emily Rolfe, the 2024 Third Fittest Woman, put pressure on Migala the entire race but wasn’t able to do enough to pass her. Rolfe finished third, while the 2023 CrossFit Games champion Horvath finished fourth. Adams’ time from Heat 1 rounded out the top five.
Event 2: North Sea Tiger
Friday’s second event was all about ring-muscle-ups and heavy snatches, but it required a 32/26 calorie Echo Bike buy-in and finished with a shuttle sprint.
North Sea Tiger
For time:
- 32/26 calories Echo Bike
- 16 ring muscle ups
- 8 squat snatch, 225/160-pounds
- 6 shuttle sprints
The Men
Gui Malheiros set the time to beat in Heat 1 (4:44), the only man to break five minutes.
In Heat 2, Pepper took the early lead after the Echo Bike. It was a lead he hung onto during the 16 muscle-ups, with Garard close on his heels.
- Pepper was able to pull well ahead of Garard (and the rest of the field) during the six squat snatches. He cruised through the shuttle sprints and went on for an event win, six seconds ahead of Malheiros’ Heat 1 time.
Fikowski finished third, 15 seconds behind Malheiros, while Garard, who struggled on the squat snatches, dropped to sixth. Meanwhile, Hopper put up another solid performance, good enough for fourth.
The Women
Event two was a tight battle between Toomey-Orr, Migala, and Horvath, but it was, once again, Toomey-Orr with the edge, finishing the 16 muscle-ups just before Migala.
Then it was Horvath’s time to shine. She started to close the gap on Toomey-Orr during the squat snatches until she was hit with a no-rep, allowing Toomey-Orr to rebuild a cushion.
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Horvath, though, caught Migala, and the two hit the shuttle runs at the same time. It was ultimately Migala who was able to win the foot race, besting Horvath by three seconds.
Event 3: Braveheart
The final event of the day was a descending ladder of wall walks/strict wall-facing handstand push-up complexes, coupled with heavy back squats.
Braveheart
For time, 8-6-4-2 reps of:
- Wall walk complex
- Back squat, 375/260-pounds
The Men
Heading into the event, there was a three-way points tie at the top of the leaderboard: Garard, Adler, and Hopper all had 175 points, with Fikowski just five points behind them.
This time, it was Adler, known for his strength, who took the early lead, followed by the two-time Games champion Justin Medeiros.
In the end, Medeiros was no match for Adler, who went on for an easy event win, 37 seconds ahead of the time to beat set by Malheiros in Heat 1.
The other three athletes who went into the event in the top four — Hopper, Garard, and Fikowski — all quickly fell off the pace set by the leaders. They finished 12th, 11th, and 18th, respectively.
Worth Noting: The reigning men’s champion Pat Vellner, expected to contend for a podium position, went into the event in ninth overall. He finished seventh on Event 3, meaning he heads into Saturday in sixth overall, 30 points away from the podium.
The Women
Two big questions going into the third event of the day were: How will Horvath handle the wall-facing handstand push-ups, and would Toomey-Orr go three-for-three on Day 1?
The answer: Horvath struggled on the handstand push-ups from the start, while Toomey-Oor continued her dominance.
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Toomey-Orr was already back, starting her second set of wall walks and handstand push-ups before Horvath had even finished her first set of eight.
- She lengthened her lead on the field as the event wore on, wrapping up her third consecutive event win to finish Friday.
Migala continued her strong performance, picking up a fourth-place finish and solidifying herself in second overall. Brooke Wells and Dani Speegle (Heat 1) finished ahead of her with the second and third fastest times.
Horvath finished 14th, enough to keep her in the top three on the overall leaderboard with two days of competition remaining.
Worth Noting: Like Smith on the men’s side, Wells quietly sits in fourth overall after racking up a sixth-, 14th-, and second-place finish on Friday. She is just five points behind Horvath.
The Big Picture
With two-thirds of the events left to go in Scotland, a lot of shuffling is still likely. That being said, historically, when Toomey-Orr takes the lead, she stays there. It’s hard to imagine she won’t “reclaim the crown” again this weekend.
The men’s story is much less predictable. While Adler has a 50-point lead over Garard, only 35 points separate Garard in second and Vellner in sixth. And if Vellner does what he often does (come from behind), the men’s story is far from over.
More CrossFit Coverage
- Our 2024 Rogue Invitational Women’s Podium Picks and Dark Horses
- Our 2024 Rogue Invitational Men’s Podium Picks and Dark Horses
- Celebrating the 2024 Rogue Invitational Legends Roster
Featured image: Seb Vallejo, @vallejo_media_ / Instagram
