During three epic days of competition and nine testing events, Elite individuals fought for the top spot at the Norwegian CrossFit Championship. Elite teams were tested thought eight events, and the Sanctional also included a community filed and two Masters categories.
The Norwegian CrossFit Championship saw athletes take on a ski slope for a winter run, test a three-rep max front squat and complete 5,000m on a C2 bike, with alternating row and skierg calories every three minutes.
It was Gabriela Migala, Poland’s National Champion, Griffin Roelle from the US, and The Progrm who took the top spots. The CrossFit Games invites went to third placed Finnish athlete Sanna Venäläinen, Griffin Roelle and The Progrm.
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The programming was definitely a highlight of the competition; events were not only testing but fun to watch. The setup for Event 8, 3RM Front Squat, made for interesting approaches, as athletes needed to perform all moves unbroken and could only up the weight in 5kg increments.
Only after a successful three reps could an athlete increase the weight and a tie break, consisting of the time it took an athlete to complete their last successful three reps, gave an incentive to move faster through the sets and added a tactical element.
NORWEGIAN CROSSFIT CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
Elite Women
On the women’s field, Gabriela Migala and Andrea Solberg had a good competition going on. Solberg, competing in home territory, walked away from the weekend with three event wins. However, it was Migala’s consistency, with seven top three finishes and no finish outside the top ten, who took the overall win.
As Poland’s National Champion – and a 17th place finish in the worldwide Open – Migala has already qualified to the 2020 CrossFit Games. This was her first Sanctional win, however, Migala finished 4th at the Dubai CrossFit Championship and 2nd at Strength in Depth.
A fourth place at the Filthy 150, the first Sanctional of the season, secured Solberg her ticket to the Games. Solberg has also finished third at the SouthFit CrossFit Challenge and ranking second at the Norwegian CrossFit Championship awarded her a second Sanctionals podium.
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Going into the final event, the CrossFit Games ticket could go to whoever followed these two ladies. The contenders were two-times Sactional winner Jacqueline Dahlstrom and Finnish athlete Sanna Venäläinen. Dahlstrom would need to win the event and for Venäläinen to finish 7th or worse to get the invite.
The workout consisted of two rounds of 21-15-9 of thrusters and progressively harder pulls, starting with pull ups, chest to bar and finishing with muscle ups. Dahlstrom, also from Norway, won the final event alongside Solberg – they were the only two female athletes to finish under the time cap – but there was nothing she could do to influence Venäläinen’s performance.
In the end, it was Venäläinen who finished third overall and punched her ticket to the CrossFit Games, seven points ahead of Dahlstrom. Venäläinen is the second fittest woman in Finnland and will be making her first trip to the Games.
Final leaderboard:
- Gabriela Migala
- Andrea Solberg
- Sanna Venäläinen
- Jacqueline Dahlstrom
- Rebecka Vitesson
Male Elite
On the men’s filed spectators were treated to a constant competition between Americans Griffin Roelle and Josh Woodhull, and Swede Viktor Långsved.
Roelle, the ultimate winner, finished dead last on the fist event and climbed his way up the leaderboard, culminating the Sanctional with six top-five finishes, which included three event wins.
A highlight of his performance was Event 8 of the competition: 3-rep max front squat. Roelle made 165km look easy and breezed through the three reps.
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Griffin Roelle finished 97th in the 2020 worldwide Open and will make his first individual appearance at the CrossFit Games this year. He was part of Team CrossFit Dwala at the 2018 CrossFit Games.
- Griffin Roelle
- Josh Woodhull
- Viktor Långsved
- Nicolay Billaudel
- Haraldur Holgersson
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Team Elite
The competition throughout the weekend was between The Progrm and The Athlete Program. Just over ten points separated the two teams going into the final day of competition, which only had two events in store.
The Athlete Program won the first event of the day, but the Progrm finished second and went on to win the final event of the competition. With The Athlete Program finishing second on the last event, the margin between the two teams remained the same at the end of the competition and The Program took gold, beating The Athlete Program by 13 points.
The Progrm, comprised of 2019 Games athlete Joshua Wichtrup, 2017 Regionals athlete Jamie Headon, 2018 Games team member Matilde Garnes and top Swedish athlete Ella Wunger, have only been together for a couple of months.
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They competed at the Filthy 150, where they were runners up, and have applied the lessons learnt from that close victory at the Norwegian CrossFit Championship. The team has now won the invitation to the 2020 CrossFit Games.
Final leaderboard:
- The Progrm
- The Athlete Program
- Team Finland
- CrossFit Oslo Warriors
- Team RXPerformance
You can find the full leaderboard here.
Have a look at all workouts here.
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WATCH THE 2020 NORWEGIAN CROSSFIT CHAMPIONSHIP
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
The Norwegian CrossFit Championship was the seventh Sanctional of the season. Wodapalooza is up next, kicking off on Tuesday February 20.
Image Sources
- Norwegian-crossfit-championhip-recap: Image courtesy of Norwegian CrossFit Championship