Crossfit's Competitive Season In Full Swing

The Crossfit Open And Regionals Have Come And Gone, And For The First Time Since The New Format Was Implemented, South Africa Has A Male Athlete Heading To The Crossfit Games.

- Julian Reichman

The season started with the CrossFit Open, which got underway at the end of February and concluded five weeks later at the end of March. This year the worldwide CrossFit community was thrown a curve ball during the Open when the director of the CrossFit Games, Dave Castro, announced that dumbbells would be used for the first time. A scramble ensued as participating affiliates and anyone else entering the Open had to quickly source dumbbells for the workouts. With the first 17.1 workout done, there was a great deal of uncertainty as to whether dumbbells would be used again and, as usual, the Open and Castro did not fail to disappoint, with dumbbells appearing in another workout later during the first phase of the competitive season. This year also saw a new category added in the form of the Masters divisions, which allowed more athletes to compete against other contenders on a more equal footing, as doing battle with the younger, stronger athletes in the Open category can be challenging. However, these categories were still extremely competitive, with many of the old-school CrossFit pioneers going head to head to provide awesome entertainment, and ensure a level of prowess that was an example to many younger athletes. These are the leaders in the sport who are proving that longevity in CrossFit is possible with the right training regimen. The top 200