What a weekend! The Invitational this year wasn’t something to be missed. We had the chance to see some of the best athletes in the CrossFit world crush four events within an hour and a half… But first our weekend:
The weekend was full of CrossFit spirit – you could meet familiar faces from the CrossFit community all over Berlin. Our team had the chance to visit a couple of CrossFit boxes before the big event.
As real CrossFitters we met at the bar on a Friday night – we visited CrossFit Werk, where the athletes themselves had been training for the whole week. We had an intensive WOD and great time there.
On Saturday morning we visited myleo CrossFit – what an amazing box! If you happen to be in Berlin make sure to go there.
The Invitational
The Invitational took place at the old airport Tempelhof in Berlin. All the seats were sold out and the house was full of CrossFitters from all over the world, assembled to see Team World and Team USA compete against each other.
Not only did we get to see a great show, but also saw the best athletes from the USA, Australia, Canada and Europe throw down an amazing performance. The members of Team USA are all popular faces- Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Ben Smith, Lindsey Valenzuela, Valerie Voboril and Talayna Fortunado. Strong athletes represented Team World as well – Frederik Aegidius(Europe), Chad Mackay(Australia), Albert-Dominic Larouche(Canada), Samantha Briggs(Europe), Kara Webb(Australia) and Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet(Canada). Just reading those names creates an image of how fascinating this event was!
The event itself was very well organised, and in just an an hour and a half the world’s top athletes completed four hard team events.
Event 1: Team – Jackie
Team World wins 11:10
1000m row
50 thrusters with the empty bar (20kg)
30 pull-ups
The women from both teams stepped up first on the rowers . Sam Briggs showed her extreme endurance once again by destroying the 1000m row, by doing the thrusters unbroken and by smashing the pull-ups. Amazing – an unofficial time of under six minutes! The women from Team USA were not as good as expected but still – what incredible athletes. The men from Team USA were unquestionably strong and fast as well. In this event Team World took the lead by one point (11:10).
After hardly no time at all second event followed.
Event 2
Team World wins 3:0
15 Dumbell Burpee Boxjumps
30 Partner-Deadlifts @ 265/182 kg
30 Overhead Squats @ 102/62 kg
15 Muscle-Ups per athlete
The women from Team USA couldn’t catch up with the women from Team World. Sam’s height was an obstacle for her to keep her back straight, but she showed her incredible strength on the deadlifts. The OHS were too much for her skinny legs though, so she completed just one rep. The same happened in team USA where Valenzuela and Voboril flied through the overhead squats, while Fortunado was taking a break. But at the end this is what a team is all about! The men from Team USA destroyed the OHS with Froning doing 10 unbroken reps at 102kg… Sounds almost scary.
Event 3
Team USA wins 3:0
The Clean Ladder
Here we had mixed pairs as well.
The men from Team World showed that they have something to work on, while Froning’s opening lift was 140kg. The crowed went crazy and the atmosphere was incredible. I had chills.
Event 4
Team World wins 6:3
Absolutely our favorite! There was everything in it – a true CrossFit workout.
30m Handstand Walk
60 Team Worm-Thrusters
30m Overhead Lunges with the fat bar with 75/45 kg (heavy!!!!)
Team USA started with a lead of 2 points but it all came down to the final event (the winner takes it all)
One could see that Sam Briggs had worked on her handstand walk, but Kara Webb and Camille smashed it. Team World were very synchronised at the worm-thrusters with Chad Mackay and as far as I remember they had to lay down the worm just twice. This is where they got back the lead from Team USA. Team USA’s Coach Matt Chan was counting every rep for his team helping them get through the thrusters. They did it, but the overhead lunges were a nightmare for team USA and especially for Valerie Vaboril. She turned out to be the weakest link in this WOD.
Team World took the lead and won the Invitational – this year the “world was enough”.
The After-Party
This party was organised by CrossFit Werk and it took place in the Capitol Golf Lounge in Berlin – a very cool location.
This was our event! I am glad that there are no pictures from there though… AMRAP dance and alcoholic beverages. I think I won it.
Аll in all this was an unforgettable weekend, full of CrossFit joy and new friends, some WODs for us, a lot of WODs for the top athletes of our sport and many many smiles.
Haha, I absolutely love the last part 😉 “I think I won it!” 😉
Froning and Khalipa were obviously quite “happy” too this night so I guess that’s fine and falls in the category of constant variation! Pretty sure!