Current champions Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey led for the entirety of Stage 1 of the 2020 CrossFit Games.
Behind them, the battle to qualify for Stage 2 was tightly fought, though. The men’s top five was filled by four Americans and one Canadian as Noah Ohlsen, Justin Medeiros, Samuel Kwant and Jeffrey Adler booked their places alongside Fraser, while Brooke Wells, Haley Adams, Katrín Tanja Davídsdoottir and Kari Pearce from the women’s division will join Toomey in California.
The class of Fraser was simply unmatched by the men’s field as he finished with a 168-point lead and four event wins. His compatriot Justin Medeiros achieved the shock result of the weekend by finishing third at just 21 years of age, having placed second in a brutal event titled Nasty Nancy (five rounds for time of a 500m run, 15 overhead squats, and 15 bar-facing burpees).
Fraser laid down a serious marker as he bids to become the first man ever to win five consecutive CrossFit Games titles this year, proving it will take something special to overhaul him if he stays injury-free.
In the women’s division, meanwhile, some big-name competitors finished surprisingly low down the rankings. Perhaps the most notable absentee in Stage 2 will be Sara Sigmundsdottir, who ended up in just 21st place despite having come fifth in Awful Annie early on Saturday.
Former Games winner Sam Briggs and 2018 runner-up Laura Horvath also failed to make the top-20.
But experienced Icelandic athlete Katrin Davidsdottir produced some drama by mounting a comeback on Sunday to secure fourth place after winning Nasty Nancy and the freestanding handstand hold.
Toomey will be the favourite to be crowned Fittest Woman on Earth, but with a lead of just 35 points over second-place Brooke Wells, the female competition could be the more open of the two.
The top 10 athletes will now head to Aromas, California to go head to head in the in-person finals between the 19th and 25th of October.
