The Australia CrossFit Championship (ACC) Sanctional will introduce a never-seen event to CrossFit competition.
Practised predominantly by surf lifesavers, beach flags is a sport which tests reflexes and sprinting ability on sand.
It involves a series of flags – always one less than the athletes competing – inserted into the sand in a single row. Competitors start 20 metres away, lying with their face down and facing away from the flags.
After the starting signal, athletes turn around and race towards the row of flags to grab hold of one. The athlete without a flag is eliminated.
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“We are proud to host an event in an iconic Aussie location and want our programming and spectator experience to make the most of it,” said Ruth Blackett, Media Manager at ACC. “This year, with our home-grown theme, we wanted a test that reflected Aussie beach history and required coordination, speed and fearless precision.
“Beach flags was a natural choice for our expert team.”
The event relies heavily on reaction time, agility, speed and power and is only planned for individual athletes.
Integrating Beach Flags into the competition required several months of planning, testing and refining to ensure the competition program was assessed holistically.
“It’s important for an event like this to be an appropriate test,” said Ruth. “As a Sanctional, our goal is for our events to ultimately produce winners that are Games quality.”
ACC are not the first ones to introduce new tests to competition. Earlier this year, CrossFit Strength in Depth tested athletes in a familiar modality with a crucial twist: a 500m row on water.
“We have a wonderful group of athletes this year who are up for the test,” said Ruth. “Their reaction to our announcement has been great and we can’t wait to see them show off their fitness and test themselves doing something different.”
Just under a month until we find out if athletes can – or if they will – dive for the flag.
The ACC will take place in at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre between March 5 and 8 2020.
Image Sources
- beach-flags-at-australian-crossfit-championship: Courtesy of @auscrossfitchamp by @trentcallaghanphotography