Toomey and Vellner Lead After Day 1 of Rogue Invitational

Those who were seeking to watch their favorite athletes compete again finally got their wish on Saturday during the first day of competition of the Rogue Invitational. Thirty-five athletes on 33 different competition floors across ten countries and nine-time zones were able to throw down again thanks to Rogue’s grand logistical undertaking.

The women’s division:

A familiar name sits atop the leaderboard after day one, Tia-Clair Toomey, the defending Rogue Invitational champion holds a 25-point lead over Jamie Simmonds and a 35-point lead over Sara Sigmundsdottir. Toomey started the competition with a dominating performance in event one, using quick transitions, strategy and a reverse-grip on the burpee pull-ups to finish in 7:14.71. Simmonds placed second with a time of 7:32.60. Australian Kara Saunders won the opening heat and placed third overall with a time of 7:40.96, going unbroken in her final set of nine heavy thrusters.

Event two consisted of two scored events, the first half was 50 power snatches for time, with four minutes to complete. After one minute rest period, the second half of the event was an EMOM “death by” power snatch workout starting with 11 repetitions and going up by one rep every minute until there was only one person left. The athlete nicknamed “the Engine”, Samantha Briggs, put on a clinic as she recorded an amazing 211 reps to win the event. Sigmundsdottir was a distant second with 175 reps, falling just one rep short of moving into the round of 22 reps. Brooke Wells bowed out at 170 reps to finish third. Toomey had the top time in the first part of the event, going unbroken and finishing with a time of 1:25.80. She struggled in the second part however and finished 13th overall with 115 reps.

The final event of the day consisted of a buy-in of 240 heavy rope double unders followed by two rounds of 60 toe-to-bars and 24 cals on the Rogue Echo bike. Haley Adams was able to edge her Mayhem teammate Toomey for the win and the $5,000 event win prize, finishing in 10:51.25. Toomey’s second-place finish vaulted her back into the overall lead. Simmonds placed third, finishing with a time of 11:45.82.

• Kara Saunders sits in fourth place despite performing all the workouts after midnight and finishing the final workout around 4am Australian time.
• 2018 CrossFit Games runner-up Laura Horvath is in fifth place after a couple of top-six event finishes.
• Carolyne Prevost, who sits in seventh place, had the third-best time in the first part of event two, going unbroken on all 50 of her snatches and finishing in 1:26.80.
• Katrin Davidsdottir struggled on day one, sitting one place out of last.
• Toomey completed all her events at Calfkiller Athletics in Sparta, Tennessee.
• Adams competed at “the Barn” on Rich Froning’s property in Cookeville, Tennessee. Froning was joined by the Mayhem Freedom team in cheering Adams on.

The men’s division:

The top three 0n the men’s leaderboard are athletes who were early favorites to win after defending champion Mathew Fraser withdrew, recovering from an injury. 2020 CrossFit Open champion Patrick Vellner holds a 55-point lead after a pair of event wins to end the day. Jacob Heppner sits in second followed by last year’s Games runner-up Noah Ohlsen.

The opening event on the men’s side was won by Colten Mertens who finished with a time of 7:01.07. Vellner won his heat but placed second with a time of 7:10.21. Heppner finished third, finishing in 7:20.50.

Vellner’s run of top finishes started with the second part of event two as he was the only athlete to make it out of the round of 18 reps and kept going into the round of 19 despite clinching the victory. He finished with 131 reps followed by Heppner (114 reps) and Björgvin Karl Guđmundsson (113 reps).

Vellner followed his event two performance with an equally impressive event three victory finishing his final 30 calories on the Rogue Echo Bike in 10:39.63. Heppner recorded his third top-three finish and his second-straight runner-up event finish with a time of 10:56.09. Canadian Alexandre Caron won his heat and placed third overall with a time of 11:09.52.

• Chandler Smith had the top time of 1:24.20 in the first part of event two. He sits in fourth place.
• Adrian Mundwiler sits in fifth place thanks to two top-six performances.
• Mundwiler, Jonne Koski and Thuri Helgadottir are all competing at the same gym this weekend, CrossFit Zug in Hünenberg, Switzerland. They are the only athletes competing together in the field.
• Ohlsen was the only athlete to attempt to do the competition outside as he did event one at his home before moving inside to a gym for events two and three.

On tap for Sunday: The final day of competition features three more events as athletes jockey for their share of the $375,000 prize purse.

• The first event kicks off at 10:00 am with the athletes throwing around heavy weights in a clean and jerk lift-off starting with a quick one-minute workout.
• The final day will be streamed live on Rogue Invitational website and on the Rogue Fitness YouTube channel from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm EST.
• Tune in prior to the first event as Rogue will broadcast a 30-minute edition of the Iron Game studio show, featuring highlights, athlete interviews, and expert analysis with Sean Woodland, Chase Ingraham and Margaux Alvarez.

The Top Overall Top 10 After Day 1

1. Tia-Clair Toomey (335) | Patrick Vellner (375)
2. Jamie Simmonds (310) | Jacob Heppner (320)
3. Sara Sigmundsdottir (300) | Noah Ohlsen (300)
4. Kara Saunders (290) | Chandler Smith (290)
5. Laura Horvath (285) | Adrian Mundwiler (285)
6. Kristin Holte (275) | Björgvin Karl Guđmundsson (280)
7. Carolyne Prevost (255) | Cole Sager (240)
8. Samantha Briggs (245) | Alexandre Caron (235)
9. Haley Adams (245) | Saxon Panchik (235)
10. Brooke Wells (245) | Jonne Koski (235)