Day 2 was highlighted by a tremendous surge from Laura Horvath.
After the second day of Individual Competition at the 2023 CrossFit Games, Sophomore CrossFit Games competitor Emma Lawson, while Roman Khrennikov widened the gap between himself and the rest of the Men. Alexis Raptis (second place) is just ahead of likely favorite Laura Horvath and Chandler Smith is the closest to Khrennikov. Following a poor opening day, reigning Men’s champion Justin Medeiros (12th place) rebounded nicely to put himself within striking distance of the top through the rest of the way.
2023 CrossFit Games Individual Leaderboard
Here are the top 10 Individual Women after two days of the 2023 CrossFit Games:
Women
- Emma Lawson (Canada) — 477 points
- Alexis Raptis (United States) — 458 points
- Laura Horvath (Hungary) — 457 points
- Alex Gazan (United States) — 450 points
- Arielle Loewen (United States) — 432 points
- Jamie Simmonds (Australia) — 388 points
- Annie Thorisdottir (Iceland) —356 points
- Bethany Flores (United States) — 370 points
- Emma Tall (Sweden) — 327 points
- Paige Powers (United States) — 350 points
Men
- Roman Khrennikov (United States) — 543 points
- Jeffrey Adler (Canada) — 443 points
- Chandler Smith (United States) — 432 points
- Jay Crouch (Australia) — 411 points
- Brent Fikowski (Canada) — 405 points
- Bjornvin Karl Gudmundsson (Iceland) — 401 points
- Patrick Vellner (Canada) — 392 points
- Jelle Hoste (Belgium) — 364 points
- Bayley Martin (New Zealand) — 363 points
- Jonne Koski (Finland) — 357 points
Event 4 Results — The Alpaca Redux
Instead of being a closing workout like it was in 2022, the Alpaca Redux kicked matters off on Day 2 of the 2023 Games.
Athletes had the task of pushing a weighted sled (443 pounds for the Women, 546 pounds for the Men) 126 feet for the fastest time. After they finished their sled push, the competitors had to perform three rounds of:
- Two legless rope climbs
- 12 kettlebell clean and jerks
- A 42-foot sled push starting with two (53 pounds for Women, 70 pounds for Men) kettlebells
Note: After each round, two additional kettlebells were added.
Khrennikov began to pull away from the field with a dominant win thanks to a time of 12:34.59. Emma Tall coasted ahead of the rest of the Women with a victory and time of 15:54.01. That was nearly 42 seconds better than Horvath (16:36.18) in second place.
Notably, CrossFit Games veteran Ben Smith suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right leg during the workout. The athlete did not withdraw and, at the time of this writing, is still persevering in the competition. Smith had surgery on a torn meniscus on his left leg in 2019.
Event 5 Results — SkiBag
On the SkiBag, the athletes had another race for time, in this instance completing the below circuit as fast as possible:
- 30-calorie SkiErg
- 30 sandbag squats (125 pounds for Women, 200 pounds for Men)
- 20-calorie SkiErg
- 20 sandbag squats (125 pounds for Women, 200 pounds for Men)
With a blistering time of 4:36.18, Laura Horvath flexed her muscles en route to a comfortable win by over a minute. For the Men, Colton Mertens (4:30.60) just edged out Samuel Kwant (4:34.75).
Event 6 Results — Helena
The Helena of the 2023 CrossFit Games was a slight variation of the classic benchmark WOD that most of the athletes were already familiar with. Rather than implement kettlebell swings and pull-ups, this Helena consisted of three rounds of the below, with an 11-minute time limit:
- 400-meter run
- 12 bar muscle-ups
- 21 dumbbell snatches (35 pounds for Women/50 pounds for Men)
For the Women, Jamie Simmonds paced ahead of the group with a time of 8:27.12. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Adler (7:56.58) was the only competitor to complete the course with a sub-eight-minute time, besting his nearest competitor, Will Moorad (8:05.63) by slightly more than nine seconds for the Men’s workout win.
Day 3 On Tap
Just like that, half of the 2023 Individual CrossFit Games are in the books, and it looks like there could be two new champions. On the Men’s side, barring an outright collapse, Roman Khrennikov seems to be in a great position to break through with a title after his runner-up result last year. On the Women’s side, a appears to still be too close to call, but Lawson, Horvath, and Raptis have certainly separated themselves thus far in a race for the top.
Saturday and Sunday in Madison await, and it will be a Games marathon, not a sprint.
Featured image: @laurahorvaht on Instagram
