19.2 versus 16.2: Preliminary Analysis
Open workout 19.2 was nearly a repeat of 16.2, and what do you know, the early results show nearly repeated score distributions.
The bottom line: the fittest got A LOT fitter. The rest of us, we still have some work to do.
The difference between the workouts was that in 19.2 athletes have at least eight minutes to complete the first two rounds instead of only four minutes. Though athletes had more time to complete more reps, it doesn’t appear to have increased the number of RX athletes completing the second round or beyond.
One small, but interesting difference between 19.2 and 16.2 is that the percent of athletes running out of time on the cleans instead of the gymnastics movements was higher this year. (Notice blue peaks are higher than red.) Overall strength in 2019 appears relatively the same, but perhaps the ability with toes-to-bar and double unders has seen a slight increase.
While improvements like this are encouraging to see, the overall results are more fixed than we’ve seen with other repeat WODs.
But when it comes to the top 1%…
All that said, when we talk about consistent scores, we mean consistent for the majority, not for the elites above the 99th percentile. The 2019 top performers have already crushed the 2016 top performers. In 2016, 61 women finished the workout as did 32 men. This year already over 120 women and over 110 men finished all 430 reps, with that number continuing to grow as scores are validated.
Brooke Wells’ time of 14:20 bested Kara Webb’s top 2016 time by 47 seconds and Sara Sigmundsdottir, continuing the same streak she started at Strength in Depth, dropped her time by 1:07.
Rich Froning improved his time by 1:02 with what appears to be the best time overall. He’s followed by Patrick Vellner who dropped nearly three minutes off his time, then by Mat Fraser who shaved 1:02 off, making it much more likely Vellner and Fraser qualify for the Games through the Open, which will have major ramifications in the Sanctionals bids.
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