– competition to peak at National Park today
Early yesterday, athletes took to the pool at the National Aquatic Centre, Liliendaal, to commence the second edition of the Kares CrossFit Caribbean Championship.
Athletes, both local and international, were split into three categories and went hard at each other, but it was the international athletes who impressed enough to be at the top of the charts by the end of the first day’s challenges.
Englishman George Dutton finished in a time of 24 minutes, 14 seconds (24:14) ahead of reigning champion Guyanese Dillon Mahadeo (26:02) and Trinidadian Bryant Snaggs (29:35) in the Men’s RX category. The trio proved their superior fitness over the other five athletes in the category who failed to finish their Swim Grace routine within the 30-minute time allocation.
Dutton started to move ahead in the first 100M swim after completing 30 clean and jerk drills at 135 lbs. Mahadeo managed to close the gap slightly as the athletes competed to burn 150 calories doing ski pulls.
Dutton kept the lead after another strong swim in the second 100M swim before using up a lot of energy to burn a further 60 calories on the echo bike, but finished strong with the final 100M swim ahead of Mahadeo and Snaggs, who just managed to beat the clock.
The other athletes who failed to finish within the time allocation were ‘Pastor’ Omisi Williams (Guyana), Kellon Reid (Guyana), Demron Thompson (Barbados), Christopher Henery (Guyana), and Timothy McAndrew (Guyana). Henery, who was first to complete the clean and jerk drill, dropped back significantly in the pool, where he was not that strong but is expected to lead a strong challenge to the leaders today on the tarmac of the National Park.
In the Women’s RX category, there were six starters, but only defending champion Ava Zalman of the Netherlands and American Bryleigh Hansen finished the entire workout within the stipulated 30 minutes. Zalman was in beast mode from the clean and jerk and opened the gap, showing her poise in the pool, while Hansen and fellow American Heather Hudson were leading the chasing pack. Zalman stopped the clock at 22:45, while Hansen got there at 29:03.
Hudson will go into day 2 in third place, followed by Delice Adonis (Guyana), Patiqua Cooper (Bahamas), and Dashawna Williams.
He is in first place, headed into today’s action.
The day began with three male under-21 athletes competing in a Swim Randy event; however, it only included 75 snatches of 75lbs, a 50M swim, 75-calorie ski pulls, and a 50M swim. All three finished within the 20-minute time allocation, with Vladimir Woodroofe (13:38) leading the way ahead of Haresh Rameshwar (17:10) and Kevin Radeshwar (19:33).
Day two will see the RX athletes go toe to toe in The Fire Drill, Inverted Flame, and Greater Heights to be crowned Kares CrossFit Champion and hold bragging rights.
