Australian & Brazil CrossFit Championship Reports

Six more invitations were awarded to the 2020 CrossFit Games at the Australian CrossFit Championship and the Brazil CrossFit Championship.

In the Australian event on the Gold Coast, leaderboards were dominated by home athletes as Jay Crouch, Kara Saunders and Mayhem Independence all topped the rankings.

The most dramatic climax of the weekend came in the men’s division as Crouch secured victory by only six points, making up for a missed opportunity to qualify for Madison at the SouthFit Games earlier this season where he finished second.

Saunders took victory in a slightly more spread out women’s division, finishing over 100 points ahead of Mia Hesketh.

But it was runner-up Hesketh who took the Games invite owing to Saunders already having a place.

A clean sweep for the Aussies was completed as Mayhem Independence and Starr Strength Black battled it out for top spot well out in front of the rest of the field. 

Although Mayhem took the win, it was the second-place finishers who were handed the Madison invite. 

Meanwhile, at the Brazil Championship in Sao Paulo, there was yet another strong showing from a Canadian as Adam Davidson finished every workout in the top 10 to take the win and punch his ticket to the Games.

That means five of the 10 male Sanctional winners this season have haled from the North American country.

Melina Rodriguez from Argentina showed true South American grit by climbing from third to first on the final day in the women’s competition, becoming the first individual from the continent to win a Sanctional, and pick up her first Games invite. 

And in the team event, there was more success for Canada as Taranis Lifetree topped the leaderboard to book their place at the Games in August, narrowly beating Invictus Brazil by just 36 points.

There is scheduled to be another strong field of Canadian athletes on show this weekend at the CrossFit Atlas Games in Montreal as we approach the halfway point of the season. 

With the Coronavirus threatening to postpone or cancel mass sporting events, there is some uncertainty as to whether the full schedule will go ahead as planned and how the remaining places at the Games will be filled if Sanctionals have to be cancelled.