20.3, Norwegian Championship, 20.4, Annie Thorisdottir

Norwegian Sanctional opening CrossFit gym. Their 20.3 live stream with Kristin Holte and Nicolay Billaudel. Italian Throwdown to host Annie Thorisdottir.

Monday, October 21st, 2019

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Monday, the 21st of October, 2019. 

20.3 CrossFit Open Announcement

I spoke with Glenn Rune Olsen this weekend, the host of Norway’s 20.3 CrossFit Open workout announcement on Thursday. He shared some details about the announcement and the work they’re putting in to build a world-class experience. Featuring Nicolay Billaudel and Kristin Holte, the fittest man and woman in Norway, the workout will be hosted in english and on the opening day of CrossFit Gamlebyen in Oslo. Gamlebyen, which translates to ‘Old Town’ will be the largest gym in the city at 2000 square meters, or over 21,500 square feet of space. At that size, it may actually be the largest in the country. You should take a look at the teaser video in my show notes.

The same team is putting on the Norwegian CrossFit Championship in February, booking out the entire 400-room Storefjell Resort Hotel, about a three-hour drive from Oslo. We joked that it may be the fittest hotel on earth for a few days. Let’s just assume a ski resort in the Norwegian mountains in the middle of February means there will be some pretty wild fitness events.

The Norwegian CrossFit Championship has divisions for all ages and skill levels, and you can still register right now. I’ve put a link to registration in my show notes at WODDITY.com. You could be competing alongside a number of big-name athletes like Khan Porter, Emma Tall, Thuri Helgadottir, Streat Hoerner, Alison Scudds, Meg Reardon, Steph Chung, and the list actually keeps going.

Joining the NCC with a workout announcement will be the Down Under CrossFit Championship, which is going to feature a throwdown between James Newbury and Madeline Sturt. WODDITY will be hosting our usual live stream commentary of both events.

CrossFit Open 20.4 Announcement Details

The CrossFit Italian Showdown announced this week they will be hosting a 20.4 live stream with Annie Thorisdottir. They’ve taken a creative approach to how they’ve built their event, accepting the first 1,500 athlete registrations, regardless of skill level or qualification. They’ll be sharing details about their cut process during their workout announcement event, which will be on October 31st.

As with every week, you can watch my live commentary for the live stream on WODDITY’s YouTube channel. I’ve put a link in the show notes, but you can also zip over to YouTube and just search for WODDITY or Ben Garves. If you click the little bell icon when you subscribe to the channel, YouTube will give you an alert whenever I start a live stream. Just a little insider tip.

20.2 Scores

It’s Monday, which means scores for 20.2 are due by 5 PM Pacific tonight. The scores to beat at the time of publishing are Frederik Aegidius with 1030 reps and Alanna Fisk with 993 reps. I’m in a close second, at 217. I’m sure you are, too.

Final 20.1 Leaderboard

CrossFit officially announced the winners of the 2020 Open’s first workout. 20.1 winners are Greece’s Lefteris Theofanidis with 8:05, and Ireland’s Emma McQuaid at 7:55. The original score submitted by McQuaid was 7:41, but CrossFit noted she was assessed a penalty for a false start and one no-rep burpee, which added 14 seconds to her time.

Event winners earn $2,020 USD for taking first in an Open workout. CrossFit has not announced a finalization of the rest of the leaderboard, with ongoing discussions about the two-foot rule when completing burpees over the bar. The fastest method, and one CrossFit has accepted for years, involves a sideways leap - something some of the community is demanding be penalized. The likelihood of CrossFit throwing out precedence on this event and starting to strictly enforce penalties for the two-foot rule is doubtful.

Joining these athletes in the top three for men and women are Sam Briggs, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Cedric Lapointe, and Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson.

Fittest in Dubai Documentary

The Dubai CrossFit Championship has opened up pre-sales for their Fittest in Dubai Documentary. You can pre-order it today on sites like Vimeo. I have the link: it’s currently $4.99 to rent and $12.99 to buy.

And that’s it for news about CrossFit on Monday, October 21st. Thanks for listening. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. It’s the best way to give back to the show, because it helps more people find us. I’m Ben Garves.