Rogue Adopts Sandbag Ladder Format for 1-Rep Max Log Lift at the 2022 Rogue Invitational

On Saturday night at the 2022 CrossFit Games, there was a one-rep max Sandbag Ladder event, which introduced a new format for a lifting event to the CrossFit world. Five athletes lifted at a time. Then, as athletes were eliminated, they were separated into groups to lift three at a time. Eventually, when enough of the field was eliminated, athletes lifted solo.

Saturday night at the 2022 Rogue Invitational at the Dell Diamond stadium in Round Rock, TX, featured another strongman implement for a one-rep max lifting test — the  “Texas Oak,” a max log lift event. With a smaller number of athletes in the field (20 at Rogue compared to 40 at the Games), the opening lifts were as groups of four, then reduced to groups of two, and finally, down to individual lifts.

There was, however, a big difference in how tiebreakers for these two events played out. The tiebreak for the Sandbag Ladder occurred after the athletes failed a lift. If more than one athlete failed at the same weight, they headed to a lightweight sandbag over-yoke sprint tiebreak. For the Log Lift, the tiebreak was established ahead of time by having athletes race once across the competition floor carrying two Jerry Cans (one in each hand).

In both instances, the tiebreaks would be decided by hundredths of seconds in some cases. In both events, the tiebreaks significantly impacted the standings, particularly at certain weights. For example, eight women missed the 220-pound sandbag and the 200-pound log). 

[Related: 2022 Rogue Invitational CrossFit Results]

Comparing the Sandbag Ladder to the Log Lift

Thirty athletes —16 men and 14 women — participated in both events. Let’s draw a comparison across events for those athletes by equating finishes from the Games to the Rogue Invitational based on percentage relative to the field and divide them into quartiles:

• First Quartile: Top 10 at the Games and top five at Rogue are both top 25 percent finishes
• Second Quartile: 11-20 at the Games and six through 10th at Rogue are both in the next quartile
• Third Quartile: 21-30 at the Games and 11-15 at Rogue will be considered parallels
• Fourth Quartile: The bottom 10 at the Games and the bottom five at Rogue, or the bottom 25 percent of the field.

Men’s Division

[Related: 2022 Rogue Invitational CrossFit Event 5 — “The Turtle” Results & Recap]

• Only Ricky Garard managed a top 25 percent finish in both competitions.
• Samuel Kwant finished in the second quartile for both.
• Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson and Jonne Koski were in the third quartile for both.
• All 12 other men moved between quartiles on these two events. 

The Biggest Movers

• Roman Khrennikov finished 13th (second quartile at the Games) and took 2nd (first quartile at Rogue)
• Henrik Haapalainen placed 12th (second quartile at the Games) and jumped to fifth (first quartile at Rogue)
• Justin Medeiros placed fifth at the Games (first quartile) but dropped to 16th at Rogue (third quartile). While there was some controversy about whether his lift at 270 pounds should have counted, it ultimately did not, as he was deemed to have begun that attempt after the allotted time had elapsed. 

Women’s Division

[Related: 2022 Rogue Invitational CrossFit Event 6 — “The Duel II” Results & Recap]

• Dani Speegle winning both events jumps off the page instantly and establishes her as the woman to beat in this style of odd-object or strongman-lifting events.
• Laura Horvath taking third in the Sandbag and second with the log is a close second in terms of consistency. 
• Ellie Turner rounds out a trio of impressively strong women who managed to finish in the top quartile at both the Games (seventh) and at Rogue (third)
• The only other athlete to finish in the same (third) quartile at both was Arielle Loewen (28th and 13th, respectively).

The Biggest Movers

• Jacqueline Dahlstrøm, whose phenomenal effort earned her second at the Games, was not to be repeated as she placed second to last on the Log Lift at Rogue.
• Gabriela Migała almost did the opposite. She only managed a 26th (third quartile) on the Sandbag at the Games but pushed all the way to fourth (first quartile) on the Log Lift at Rogue.
• Emma Lawson made a considerable jump from 33rd (fourth quartile) on the Sandbag to eighth (second quartile) on the Log Lift. 

A couple of the strongest athletes with a barbell displayed in these two workouts that that does not necessarily translate to strength with odd objects. Jeffrey Adler has won four lifting events at the CrossFit Games, all of which featured a barbell; and yet with the sandbag; 16th (second quartile), and with the Log; 15th (third quartile). 

On the women’s side, Kara Saunders also has four event wins at the Games on workouts predominantly decided by a barbell, yet placed eerily similar to Adler, taking 17th (Sandbag) and 16th (Log). 

The format for these two events was similar, and the idea of testing the athlete’s strength by using less perfect objects than a barbell remains intact. However, the results were quite scattered. Doing well on one did not guarantee a similar fate on the other.

Some athletes showed proficiency at both (Speegle, Horvath), some excelled at one and not the other (Dahlstrøm, Medeiros), and others struggled with both (Adler, Saunders). It’s likely that for some, odd-object and strongman training will have to be factored into their preparations for the 2023 season. Others are simply hoping more of it shows up in future programming.

Featured image: @rogueinvitational on Instagram