Hosting the CrossFit Kids competition: "The Teen Gauntlet" at 3D is an absolute pleasure. Don't get me wrong, it is a lot of hard word behind the scenes and always nerve wracking on the day to make sure all the kids have a great time, stay injury free, and keep parents happy/off the competition floor, but this all pales into insignificance when you see these kids in action at 3,2,1 go.
There are only 15 affiliates worldwide that have the privilege of hosting these events, and only 3 of these are outside of the USA/Canada . The others being CrossFit Hawkes Bay in New Zealand and CrossFit Michelton in Australia. Let's just think about that for a second. 3D is the only affiliate in Europe, and the entire Northern Hemisphere to be hosting this competition outside the North American continent. What a great opportunity for European upcoming talent, specifically in the UK! And what a great thing for 3D to be part of!
This specific event filled up in a matter of days. We capped the event at 20, just to ensure we could provide a quality event. This is now the third event we have run and the participant numbers have risen steadily each time.
The first event, "Muscle up Jackie" was scored in 3 sections. The athletes had to row 1000m (750m for novice competitors) for the first score, complete 50 thrusters (40 for novice competitors) and then complete as many muscle ups as possible in the remaining time for the second score, (there was a 10 minute time cap). Directly after this, competitors had 1 minute to set a max distance for a med ball toss in 3 attempts for a third score.
The next event was scored in 2 sections, a 1:00 for max distance handstand walk with a point for every 6' travelled (extra points awarded for a turnaround manoeuvre and re-crossing lines) being the first score, followed by a 60' shuttle run directly afterwards for the second score.
The final event, 'Last Teen Standing' was for one final score. At 3,2,1 go, each athlete performed 1 hang power snatch and 2 over-the-bar burpees. On the second minute, 2 hang power snatch and 4 burpees were required. On the third minute, 3 hang power snatch and 6 burpees, increasing by 1 rep on the snatch and 2 on the burpees each minute until competitors ran out of time to complete the required work. There was a lot of standing around for the first few minutes, but the athletes got much busier very quickly! There was some awesome sportsmanship and support all day, but specifically in this final event.
The programming, courtesy of Brand X, home of CrossFit Kids, was once again exemplary and perfect for showing the well-rounded athletes.
There were a few highlights for me - Atlanta's amazing handstand walk whilst doing the splits, Jamie's strict, slow motion muscle ups, two of the girls taking a time penalty on the chin gracefully after a shortfall of standards in the shuttle run (they ended up joint 1st in their division overall, so no harm done either!), Yusuf's reward of 1 muscle up after an incredibly hard-fought battle to get one, and finally, seeing the Junior Varsity boys all rally around Tom in the "Last Teen Standing" event to will him onto a bigger and better score, even though this increased his lead over them all. They showed true sportsmanship and I think we can all learn from their actions and conduct during this event. And lastly but certainly not least, was Callum. Callum was one of the competitors of the last two Gauntlets, who won the Junior Varsity Male category at the October 2013 event. He chose not to compete at this event due to having exams in a few weeks and was concentrating on them. However, he emailed me to offer his help, and came down, supported his peers, moved equipment and did a great job helping out all day. He even spent time with a fellow athlete who he will again be competing with soon and got him 5 kipping muscle ups in the space of 5 minutes at the end of the event. He is a true credit to his affiliate and family.
Presentation followed for the final results:
Novice Male:
1st: Chris Murray
2nd: Blace Eckols
3rd: Luke Gilbertson
Novice Female:
1st: Hannah Littleford
2nd: Ella Kon
3rd: Lara-Mae Taylor
Junior Varsity Male:
1st: Tom Smith
2nd: Jamie Lowry
3rd: Yusuf Tufail
Junior Varsity Female:
Joint 1st: Mae-Lei King & Olivia Payne
Varsity Male:
1st: Milton Steele-Vassen
2nd: Drew McLean
3rd: Jack Mercer
Varsity Female:
1st: Evie Hollis
2nd: Atlanta Harfield
3rd: Ellie Ball
Well done to all athletes who took part, and thank you to Reebok who kindly donated a £25 voucher for online purchases at www.reebok.co.uk to all of them.
The next event is set for Saturday April 12th. I'm excited to see what these kids can achieve in another 3 months of training!