Competition

Finals Set for International Functional Fitness Federation Continental Cup

December 15, 2020 by
Image - Training Day Media
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The finals for the 2020 International Functional Fitness Federation (iF3) Continental Cup are set after a weekend of worldwide virtual competition came to a close late Monday evening. A total of 12 men, 12 women and ten teams advanced to the iF3 Continental Cup Finals this coming weekend with prizes and a coveted automatic spot to next year’s iF3 World Championships in Australia on the line.

Remind me: This past weekend’s preliminary rounds were a live virtual competition for the top athletes from each country with a Functional Fitness National Federation. 

  • The competition consisted of individual athletes completing six tests on a running clock that measure key components of functional fitness. 
  • The teams followed a similar format in their tests
  • The prelims were broken down into four regions.
  • The top three finishers in each region move unto the Continental Cup finals which start on Dec. 19 and will remain virtual.
  • The athlete’s performances were streamed on the iF3 YouTube channel 24 hours after the athlete’s completed their workouts in their particular time slot.

Here’s a breakdown of each region:

Americas

  • Men: Venezuela’s CrossFit national champion Omar Martinez put himself into the talks as one of the favorites for the international title. The 2019 Games athlete ran away from the field, winning by 14 points. He won two events including setting the top time in the world in test four, completing the couplet of strict handstand push-ups and pistols in 3:16. Canadian Stephane Cossette finished second after winning the final test, “Power”, completing 25 ground-to-overheads in :55 seconds, one of just three athletes in the competition to complete the workout in under a minute. Puerto Rico’s Luis Nuñez finished third thanks to four top-five finishes.
  • Women: A teenager is the Americas region champion. Fifteen-year old Emma Lawson started the competition with an event victory in “Endurance” and then strung together five-straight second place finishes to punch her ticket to the finals. The two-time Games teen division qualifier and 2019 third “Fittest 14-15 Year Old on Earth” finished with 11 points. Her time of 10:36 in the opening event was tied for the third best in the world. Games veteran and Argentina’s three-time CrossFit National Champion placed second with 15 points. After starting slow with a 10th place finish in event one, she strung together five-straight event wins highlighted by her time of 1:10 in the final event, “Power”. Her time was tops in the world followed by Lawson who finished the workout in 1:13. Rodriguez also had the world’s second fastest time in test four, “Skill”, and third fastest time in test three, “Bodyweight”. Canadian Karen Laroche finished third with 30 points.
  • Teams: This region featured the closest race for the three qualifying spots. The United States was able to capture the top spot after winning the final event, giving them a one point win over Argentina and Brazil. The US team of Cameron Kolling, Aime Jindra, Dakota Lietka and 2016 Central Regional athlete Tatum Edwards won two events and only failed to finish in the top three in one event, finishing fourth in test five. Argentina also collected two event wins with their experienced team. Nicolas Cortes and Matho Vizcarra have been teammates on three Latin American Regionals including a second place finish on CrossFit Q21 at the 2018 Regional. Their teammate, 17-year old Kiara Priscilla Schneider, has been the fittest teenager in Argentina the last three years, finishing 23rd in the Age Group Online Qualifier this past year. The team’s time of 11:26 in test five was the best in the world and they produced the world’s second best time in test four. Brazil’s team is led by 2018 Latin America Regional individual qualifier Thatianne Lima Freitas who helped the team to two event victories.

West Europe

  • Men: Spain’s Javier González Fernández, France’s Stephane Ossanga and Norway’s Marius Tinglum Pettersen are no strangers to competing against each other having seen each other in one form or another in the European CrossFit circuit including Regionals. These three were evenly matched throughout the online competition with Fernández and Ossanga each finishing with 26 points and Pettersen with 27 points. Since Fernández had two event wins he won the tie-breaker though. One of Fernández’s victories was in test one, “Endurance”, where he completed three rounds of 150 double-unders with two rounds of 750 meters on the rower in a world’s best time of 9:26. Ossanga was consistent, only scoring outside the top four just once. Pettersen was able to also hold off Italy’s Pietro Anderloni thanks to a win in test two, “Strength.”
  • Women: The 2019 second “Fittest Woman on Earth” Kristin Holte took first representing Norway. She tied the lowest score amongst all finals qualifiers with nine points. Her four event wins were tops amongst all athletes highlighted by her win in test three, “Bodyweight”, where she completed 75 toes-to-bars in 2:10, setting the top time in the world. Fellow Norwegian Jacqueline Dahlstrøm placed second with 15 points, recording three seconds and three third place finishes. Mikaela Norman completed the sweep of the top-three spots for Scandinavian countries in the West Europe region, finishing third with 35 points, holding off Switzerland’s Nicole Heer for the final qualifying spot.
  • Teams: The Norwegian team dominated like no other team in the prelims, capturing five event wins and finishing second in the sixth. Made up of former Regional athletes including the 2020 second “Fittest Man in Norway” Anders Grønsund, the team had the world’s best time in five events making them the favorite heading into the finals. Sweden edged out France by one point for second place in the region. Anchored by a pair of Regional athletes in Angelica Bengtsson and Oscar Andersson, they were the only team to take an event from the Norwegians, winning test five with a time of 11:32, the second fastest time in the world. The French team, led by Regional veteran Yohann Gigord finished the prelims with three seconds and two third places.

East Europe

Image – International Functional Fitness Federation
  • Men: Uldis Upenieks came into the competition as one of the favorites and after his prelims he has reaffirmed that. Representing his native Latvia, the 2019 Games athlete picked up three event wins while setting the world’s top time in two of them enroute to scoring a prelims best 11 points. He had the world’s best time in test two, “Strength” and test three, “Bodyweight” finishing each in 2;10 and 2:27 respectively. Kristóf Horváth, Hungary’s CrossFit Open national champion, finished second in the region with 24 points, one point ahead of Latvia’s Marcis Mucenieks. Horváth won just one event but set the world’s best time in that event, completing test five, “Mixed”, a triplet that included Cals on the rower, kettlebell swings and burpees over the rower in 11:41. Mucenieks also won one event, completing test six, “Power” in :47 seconds.
  • Women: Russia’s Svetlana Kubyshkina took home the top honors in the East Europe region with nine points, tying Holte with the lowest point total amongst all competing athletes. She won three events and placed second in the other three events. Fedra Szakolczai and Kitti Kovács, both of Hungary, went back and forth for the runner-up spot with Szakolczai’s win in the final event giving her a one point edge.
  • Teams: Hungary was the only team to complete all the workouts and will be the only team moving onto the finals to represent the East Europe region.

Africa/Asia/Australia

  • Men: Japan’s Tomohiro Itaya tied Upenieks for the most event wins in the men’s field with three enroute to capturing his region’s title. He scored 15 points with none of his finishes outside the top five. Lim Woo Young finished second with 21 points despite not winning any events but Korean never placed outside the top five in any event. Australia’s Jake Law secured the final spot to the finals from the region needing a win in the final event to hold off a charging Abdulrahman Sulayman of Egypt. Law had two event wins during the prelims including in the opening test, “Endurance” where he had the second best time in the world at 9:31.
  • Women: The closest race for a region title occured between Japan’s Yuko Sakuyama and Australia’s Jessica Coughlan. Sakuyama, Japan’s 2020 CrossFit national champion, edged Coughlan by two seconds in the final event, “Power”, completing 25 ground-to-overheads in 1:33, clinching a one point advantage in the final leaderboard. Sakuyaman, a six-time CrossFit Asia Regional athlete, also had an event win in test four, “Skill”, completing the workout that featured strict deficit handstand push-ups and pistols with a time of 3:00, the best time amongst all women athletes. Coughlan finished with three event wins. Korea’s Woo Seung A secured the last finals invite, holding off country woman Kim Solbi by one point, helped by her event win in “Endurance”.
Image – Korea Functional Fitness Association
  • Teams: This region went down to the final event as three teams were jockeying for top spot as Korea, Australia and Egypt were all one point within each other. Led by national champion Jung Da Won and Regional veterans Choi Mi Jeong, Hyeong Jae Park and Yong Jun Lee the Koreans took the top spot by one point over the Australians. The Korean team had two event wins and three runner-up finishes. The Aussies, led by Regional athlete Callum Foster also had two event wins. The Egyptians actually won the final event with a time of 5:56, the second best time in the world, to secure third place just two points behind Korea. Twenty one year old Mohamed Sherif Mohamed and his team actually won the final two events to propel them into the finals.

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