Alexis Raptis and Roman Khrennikov put themselves in excellent position for the rest of the weekend.
Written by Robert Zeglinski
The first day of Individual competition at the 2023 CrossFit Games has finally concluded. Alexis Raptis and Roman Khrennikov are in first place for the Women and Men, respectively, with three days remaining for this segment of the competition. Emily Rolfe (second place) and Arielle Loewen (third place) round out the early podium for the Women. On the Men’s side, Jay Crouch (second place) and Spencer Panchik (third place) are just behind Khrennikov.
The athletes began their day at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time in Madison, WI. Unlike last year’s Games, there was no major inclement weather that pushed any event or workout scheduling back. Though the 2022 Games did initially have plans for a rest day, that is not the case in 2023. The Individual athletes who make it all the way to the Finals are expected to compete for four consecutive days through Sunday, August 6, 2023.
Here are the respective top-10s for the Individual Women and Men after Day 1 of the 2023 CrossFit Games:
In this workout, athletes had 40 minutes to complete as many 2,400-meter laps as possible while riding a Trek Bikes Marlin 8 Mountain Bike. Each lap featured an 80-meter run with the bike to return it to a place where it can be ridden again.
The story of the workout was undoubtedly Emma Lawson, who paced ahead of the Women with seven laps for the first Games event win of her career. Lawson was the 2022 CrossFit Rookie of the Year and appears to already be building well on that debut. On the Men’s side, Ant Haynes cruised ahead of the rest of his peers with seven laps, too, but the current overall top two (Khrennikov and Crouch) weren’t far behind in fifth and fourth place, respectively. Haynes is in 30th place after the first day.
Here are the top five finishers for the Women:
During this workout for time, the athletes had to throw around a mechanized “pig” weighing 254 kilograms (560 pounds) while completing other exercises, chipper-style. In a chipper, every repetition of one exercise must be finished before proceeding forward. The sequence was as follows:
Khrennikov began to separate himself from the pack during this event, finishing the Pig Chipper with a time of 14:28.77. That was almost 16 seconds faster than runner-up Lazar Dukic. Laura Horvath was even more dominant for the Women, with a time of 13:50.40, which was over a minute faster than the next best competitor.
For the final event of Day 1 at the 2023 CrossFit Games, the athletes had to be handstand-proficient in the aptly-named Inverted Medley. For time, with a seven-minute time limit, here is what the athletes had to complete:
With a time of 3:12.75, Danielle Brandon set the pace for the Women. On the Men’s side, Cole Greashaber (3:47.89) was victorious, but runner-up Justin Medeiros might have been the bigger story. The two-time reigning champion in Medeiros sits in 22nd place after the first day of the Games. It is unclear what precisely happened to Medeiros, but commentary teams noted he had fallen during the Ride event. It is too early to declare a new champion, but Medeiros’ reign is in jeopardy after one day.
The 2023 CrossFit Games continue on Friday, August 4, 2023, with just a two-workout slate: The Alpaca Redux and the Ski Bag. Any athlete proficient in pushing sleds, legless rope climbs, and the SkiErg machine is likely relishing what’s to come in Madison. With three days left at CrossFit’s flagship contest, anything can happen, with both sides of the Individual field now seemingly wide open. There’s an entire weekend to go, and chaos already reigns.
Featured image: @crossfitgames on Instagram
