A group of local athletes are heading to the Home Depot Center in Carson, California from 29-31 July to compete for the title of the Fittest Male, Female and Team on Earth at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games.
Ashley Puschman, Stacey Kirkconnell, Krista Pell, Tim Pell, Colin Meronuk and Fabio Sordinelli are all members of CrossFit Cayman, where Tarasa and Matt Barnett are the owners.
Last week CrossFit Cayman and the Barnetts defeated individuals and teams from all countries south of the USA to secure their spot to the international competition and were named Latin America Regional Champions in the individual male and female categories, as well as the team category.
The Reebok CrossFit Games dubs itself as the “world’s premier test to find the fittest on earth” and consists of multiple events over multiple days, testing the ten elements of fitness.
The Reebok CrossFit Games began in March with the Reebok CrossFit Games Open in which over 30,000 athletes worldwide participated in a six-week online competition consisting of one workout per week.
Athletes could do the workouts at their local CrossFit gym or submit videos. Based on their performance in the workouts, top teams from the Caribbean, Latin America and South America were then invited to compete last weekend in the Latin America Regional Games in Panama.
CrossFit Cayman and the Barnetts were ranked in first place heading into the regionals and they didn’t disappoint. They swept the podium and maintained their position atop the leaderboard.
The Latin America Regional Games consisted of six workouts performed over three days. CrossFit defines fitness as being ready for the unknown and unknowable so the workouts were varied and included Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and metabolic conditioning components.
“CrossFit Cayman defeated teams and individuals who are veterans to CrossFit competition so I can proudly say we are the fittest gym in the continent,” said Tarasa Barnett.
Any single portion of each workout – the 100 pull-ups or the 100 overhead squats, for example – is difficult enough. In a CrossFit competition, though, athletes have to do both, plus 100 kettle-bell swings and 100 “double-unders” with a jump-rope – all as fast as possible.
“It’s ridiculously, unbelievably hard to do those workouts, especially in that time frame,” said Matt Barnett. “It’s probably one of the coolest sporting events there is to watch though.”
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning programme for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Workouts may consist of a combination of gymnastics, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, jumping rope, climbing ropes and other grunt work such as sandbag runs and tyre flipping.
To track the results of CrossFit Cayman and the Barnetts log on to http://games.crossfit.com/ and view the leaderboard. CrossFit Cayman is in the Industrial Park area, down Sparky’s Drive across from Progressive Distributors in Lincoln Drive Warehouses Unit no.2 and information on how to participate in a free trial class can be found at www.crossfitcayman.com.
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