Earlier today, 4-time CrossFit Games athlete Zeke Grove announced on his Instagram page that he would not be attending the Australian CrossFit Championship this weekend. The Australian CrossFit Championship is the ninth Sanctionals competition to take place for the 2020 CrossFit Games season and kicks off March 5th and runs through the 8th at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre, in Queensland, Australia.
Grove, a weathered competitive CrossFit athlete, announced that he had to withdraw within 24-hours of the event’s kickoff. He didn’t disclose what exactly was going on with his body in his post. In his Instagram post’s description he writes,
“Unfortunately there will be no @auscrossfitchamp for me this year! I’m gutted to miss out on another shot at getting back to the @crossfitgames but the body is not playing the game at the moment.
Fortunately with the new format there will be more opportunities to punch that ticket in the coming months with @downundercrossfitchampionship not too far away, I will be busting my ass to get back to where I need to be. Goodluck to all the Aussie men and women this weekend let’s keep that ticket at home.”
This is sad news for CrossFit fans, as the Australian CrossFit Championship is packed with big named athletes like Brandon Swan and Matt Mcleod, and Grove would have only pushed the competition to be even more competitive.
Earlier this year, Grove took 180th overall on the 2020 CrossFit Open Leaderboard, so his chances of qualifying for the 2020 CrossFit Games come down to the remaining Sanctionals competitions. Thankfully for Grove, there are well over 15 Sanctionals left for this year, so he has a handful of chances to still qualify as pointed out in his description above.
Other CrossFit Sanctionals Content
Care to check out the results from the previous eight Sanctionals competitions? Check out our articles below!
- November 22-24 | CrossFit Filthy 150 Recap
- December 7-8 | Pandaland CrossFit Challenge
- December 6-8 | The SouthFit CrossFit Challenge
- December 11-14 | Dubai CrossFit Championship
- January 11-12 | CrossFit Mayhem Classic
- January 24-26 | Strength In Depth
- February 14-16 | Norwegian CrossFit Championship
- February 20-23 | Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival
Feature image from @zekegrove Instagram page.