2023 CrossFit Games Individuals Recap Day 2

This Friday marked the second day for individuals competing at the 2023 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin. Read the quick recap of the three events they had to endure and how the updated leaderboard looks like.

How to watch the 2023 CrossFit Games

Were you writing off Justin Medeiros already? He began the day in 36^th place, but finished events 3, 4 and 5 in 7^th, 3^rd and 30th respectively, jumping to 16th place overall. Is this going to be one of the biggest comebacks in CrossFit Games history?

As BOXROX reported earlier, CrossFit introduced two cutting phases for this year’s Games. And the first one took place after the last event this Friday. The bottom 10 athletes will not be coming back on Saturday to compete.

To find out who was cut, click here.

Workouts

The Alpaca Redux

All for time:

• 126-foot sled push, starting with all six kettlebells (443/546 lb)

Then 3 rounds of:

• 2 legless rope climbs
• 12 kettlebell clean and jerks
• 42-foot sled push, starting with two kettlebells* (53/70 lb)

*Add two kettlebells to the sled after each round.

Time cap: 18 minutes

Ski-Bag

For time:

• 30-calorie SkiErg
• 30 sandbag squats (125/200 lb)
• 20-calorie SkiErg 
• 20 sandbag squats (125/200 lb)

Time cap: 6 minutes

Helena

3 rounds for time:

• 400-meter run
• 12 bar muscle-ups
• 21 dumbbell snatches (35/50 lb)

Time cap: 11 minutes

2023 CrossFit Games Individuals Recap Day 2

The men began the in the afternoon with two favourites to challenge for the podium among the bottom half of the leaderboard: Justin Medeiros and Sam Kwant, both in the first heat. Medeiros was struggling through the workout, with deep breaths, but finished the event in 7^th overall. Vellner took forever to finish his last set of legless rope climb and put himself into trouble to recover for the remainder of the day – he didn’t finish the workout within the time cap.

Roman Khrennikov and Brent Fikowski did a showdown, head-to-head with little difference between the two of them until the last rope climb. Khrennikov took over and finished the event strong.

Jay Crouch began the day in 2^nd place overall, but didn’t finish the event and dropped down the leaderboard.

1. Roman Khrennikov
2. Jack Farlow
3. Brent Fikowski

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In the women’s division, Emma Cary was leading the first heat, but couldn’t get pass the second set of legless rope – at one point, she fell from the top of the rope and got a no-rep and seemed to doubt herself. In the first heat, not a single athlete finished the event before the time cap.

The second heat was different with Alex Gazan leading the entire time, until the last sled push when Emma Tall passed her. Gazan took her shoes off and struggled again to push the sled and saw Laura Horvath pass her.

1. Emma Tall
2. Laura Horvath
3. Alex Gazan

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

The second event of the day was in the Coliseum with the skierg and sandbag squats. It was a thrilling moment as the event moved athletes from the mid leaderboard closer to the top. Colten Colten Mertens, Samuel Kwant, Justin Medeiros, Jelle Hoste and Bronislaw Olenkowicz made the top 5 at the event.

Chandler Smith jumped to 2^nd place overall in the leaderboard after finishing ahead of Khrennikov and Adler.

1. Colten Mertens
2. Samuel Kwant
3. Justin Medeiros

In the women’s division, for the first two heats, only Ella Wunger managed to finishe the event before the time cap. Kerstetter won heat 3 (the only one to finish also). But it was Laura Horvath who killed it, being the only woman to go sub-5 minute in the event and one of 5 to finish it.

1. Laura Horvath
2. Alex Gazan
3. Olivia Kerstetter

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The last event of the day, also in the Coliseum, was the test to look out for as athletes would be cut after it. And it was a beauty to watch. A quick event in which athletes were asked to go guns blazing if they wanted to the get the most points out of the workout.

The heats were designed differently, with the first 5 heats for men, followed by 5 from the women’s, and then the final heat of men and then the women to close off the day.

In the men’s division, Roman Khrennikov led his heat in the beginning – he could have finished the event last and Khrennikov would still be the leader tomorrow morning. However, Adler turned on the turbo and blasted through everyone.

1. Jeff Adler
2. Will Moorad
3. Lazar Dukic

In the women’s division, Emma Cary set the pace in her heat, but athletes just got faster and faster with each subsequent heat. The final one was one of the best to watch with Laura Horvath, Emma Lawson and Alex Gazan all within 28 points separating 1^st and 3^rd.

Horvath was doing great, but ran into trouble in her last set of bar muscle-ups and lost momentum and finished 15^th in the event. In the end, the event shifted the athletes at the top of leaderboard. Emma Lawson finished 5^th overall in the event and Alex Gazan 8^th.

1. Jamie Simmonds
2. Emma Cary
3. Alexis Raptis

At the end of the event, it looked like Ellie Turner (26^th) was nearly crying, with her back heavily taped and could soon withdraw from the competition.

2023 CrossFit Games Leaderboard After 6 Events

Here are the top 10 on the leaderboard for men and women after 6 events.

Men

1. Roman Khrennikov – 543
2. Jeff Adler – 443
3. Chandler Smith -432
4. Jay Crouch – 411
5. Brent Fikowski – 405
6. BK Gudmundsson – 401
7. Pat Vellner – 392
8. Jelle Hoste – 364
9. Bayley Martin – 363
10. Jonne Koski – 357

See the official leaderboard for men here.

Women

1. Emma Lawson – 477
2. Alexis Raptis – 458
3. Laura Horvath – 457
4. Alex Gazan – 450
5. Arielle Loewen – 432
6. Jamie Simmonds – 388
7. Annie Thorisdottir – 388
8. Bethany Flores – 370
9. Emma Tall – 361
10. Paige Powers – 350

See the official leaderboard here.

Check out the recap for teams for day 2.