Rich Froning made a rare individual appearance at the CrossFit Mayhem Classic as he made an exhibition performance.
Although his points didn’t count towards the final leaderboard, Froning took part in four events and managed results that would have placed him top in two of the workouts and second in the others.
This was only Froning’s second individual outing since retiring to focus on team events in 2014 and suggests he can still compete against a top-level field, with the 32-year-old even finishing a huge 93 seconds ahead of the eventual event winner in the first workout he took part in.
But with one of the sport’s biggest icons out of the running, the men’s elite field was won by American Chandler Smith who held on for victory after taking a relatively narrow 10-point lead into the final day in one of the closest Sanctionals so far this season.
Chandler edged Luke Schafer into second, but it is the runner-up who earned an invite to the Games in Madison for the first time as an individual as Chandler had already qualified.
In the women’s division, Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey made a huge statement following the recent winning form of Sara Sigmundsdottir by topping the podium.
Icelander Sigmundsdottir has been the star of the women’s season so far after picking up big wins in The Open and the Dubai CrossFit Championship, but Toomey showed she is still a force to be reckoned with by winning every event across the weekend except for one, in which she finished second.
Toomey was keeping her feet firmly on the ground afterward though, claiming the win was just an added bonus and that the performances were the most important part of the weekend as they reaffirmed her training is paying off.
The invite for the Games will roll down to fourth place Feeroozeh Saghafi who will make her second appearance at Madison.
