Last Thursday, Madrid became a spotlight of attention for the CrossFit community around the world. At nine o’clock PM local time, from the Caja Mágica, one of the most important sports venues in the city, CrossFit has announced the first of the three WOD that will compose the CrossFit Open 2023.
Without any doubt, this is a huge recognition to the Spanish community and its efforts for the growth of our sport. There are already more than 600 boxes and Spain is the fifth largest CrossFit market worldwide.
Since 2011, the announcement of the first WOD of the Open has become for the CrossFit community a worldwide awaited event.
This year, for the first time, it was held in Spain with the presence of important people from the CrossFit world such as Adrian Bozman, Nat Diez and John Singleton. CrossFit has shown exponential growth in Europe and especially in Spain. The organization wanted to somehow represent this great expanding community.
During the show, broadcasted through live streaming organised by the CrossFit Youtube channel in four languages, several representatives of the world elite of this sport compet-ed against each other.
The two leading male athletes were Björgvin Karl Gudmundsson and Lazar Dukic, third and fifth in the world rankings respectively. On the women’s side, two of the best athletes in the game, Laura Horvath and Gabriela Migala competed against each other. They are second and sixth in the world rankings of this sport.
The atmosphere in the stadium was pure CrossFit style. Athletes from boxes all over the country came to experience the announcement of the 23.1 together with the best athletes in Europe, and especially to support the 4 local athletes.
They were the first people to try the 14 minutes AMRAP of 60 cal row, 50 tea to bar, 40 wall ball shots (9/6 kg), 30 Cleans (61/43 kg) and 20 ring muscle ups.
The official weights in categories the wall ball will be performed with a 9 kg ball for men and 6 kg for women and the clean with 61 kg for men and 43 kg for women.
Among the public was especially visible the presence of the community of CrossFit Cora-je, Wezone CrossFit and Full CrossFit. These boxes have ranked at the top of the partici-pation of athletes in the Open worldwide over the last few years.
They undoubtedly deserved this great recognition and the effort of the Spanish communi-ty that responded by creating an unforgettable atmosphere inside the Caja Mágica. The name (in Spanish – Magic Box) could not have better described what was felt inside.
After Boz´s short speech, the action began. Three representatives of the boxes an-nounced together the movements that compose the 23.1 workout.
After this moment, the four privileged athletes could finally perform. Camila Granizo, Luis Fernandez, Carlos del Arco and Antonio Sanchez, four local athletes from Madrid, were the first to test the workout themselves in front of the cheering crowd.
And the difficulty of the WOD was evident. They barely managed to complete one round and the effort was remarkable. Despite the pressure of performing in front of the watchful eyes of CrossFitters from all over the world, for them, the most important thing was to en-joy this once in a lifetime moment. The public did not disappoint, making it even more special. The duel of the athletes was won by Carlos who got to start a second round.
The Pros
As for the top athletes, the competition was exceptionally tight. The athletes were very competitive and the crowd was going crazy.
Rarely one can see athletes of this level compete live, the same WOD that most of us have now performed.
Dukic finished ahead of Gudmundsson by just 11 reps, performing a total of 287 against the 276 of the favorite. At the same time, Horvath strengthened her lead over Migala by overtaking her with a total of 17 repetitions, reaching 266.
In the last few seconds, the audience was ecstatic and totally hypnotized by the capabili-ties of these great athletes and the show they put on.
Undoubtedly many of the attendees left the event wanting to give 200% in the WOD and feel like the great competitors with whom they could somehow share the emotions of this special night.
Image Sources
- BKG-Open-Shot: Photo Courtesy of CrossFit Inc