CrossFit Games

CompTrain Camp Posts Early for 21.1

March 14, 2021 by
Photo credit: Amanda Barnhart (instagram.com/amandajbarnhart/)
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In the old CrossFit Games qualification format when a select group of athletes in each Region qualified for Regionals, hardly any big name athletes would post scores early. Quite frankly, it was simply too risky. When an athlete has a score or time to beat, it always makes it a little easier to go after it. Chasing an unknown score is always harder. 

Early Saturday evening, the first really big names in the sport (aside from Kari Pearce and Kristi Eramo-O’Connell who did the workout as part of the live Open announcement) showed up on the leaderboard — Katrin Davidsdottir, Amanda Barnhart, and Samuel Kwant; the three of the five Comptrain Camp athletes (three of the five, counting Emma Gardner). 

One big thing: The Open is a lot less meaningful than it was last year, in terms of qualification for the next stage of competition (for the top athletes in the sport), perhaps we will see more of those big names entering scores earlier and earlier; and it makes sense for them to do so. Do the workout once, execute it “good enough,” and then get on with their training day, week, and cycle. 

Katrin Davidsdottir
When this workout was announced, Katrin immediately came to mind as someone who could potentially set the world record on this event. 

Even though they are not the focal point of the workout, many will remember watching Davidsdottir’s double unders at the 2018 Albany Regional as part of the Triple Three event. While Games athletes are all adept at double unders, few look so composed doing such big sets as she was that day. 

However, the double unders are not why this workout lines up so well for her. In that same year at Regionals we saw the handstand walking obstacles, with a ramp one side and stairs on the other) which athletes had to go up and over. Katrin is very well known for her proficiency at handstand walking, and although she finished third in her region in that workout, she was 90 seconds behind Kari Pearce who won that workout. 

After the event, Davidsdottir explained that the handstand obstacles were actually a bit problematic for her because her handstand walking technique is more of a shuffling of the hands while keeping shoulders and elbows locked out. That technique did not work well for the stairs, because she could not keep elbows locked out when she was required to go up the steps. She had to learn a new technique to help conquer that implement, but that does not mean that her older handstand walking technique is no longer relevant.

In the case of the wall walk, that quick shuffle across the ground to get to and from the wall should work really well. The time she posted for 21.1 Saturday was 12:30, thirty-five seconds faster than Pearce’s score from Thursday night. It was not the fastest score at that time, and it likely won’t be by the time things end on Monday, but it’s an incredible score either way.

Amanda Barnhart posted a very respectable score of 14:18, particularly considering that this workout is not favorable for bigger, heavier athletes. 

Samuel Kwant was a bit off the pace in the handstand sprint at the Games this past fall, but he did manage to finish this challenging workout under the time cap, posting a score of 14:39 which had him on the front page of the leaderboard Saturday. 

The big picture: Comptrain is seemingly sending a message early on in the season, and it’s a message that makes a lot of sense for them based on what Ben Bergeron and his team have always talked about: their focus is on the bigger picture, the season as a whole. 

  • Bergeron, and his athletes, are not focused on the Open and they are not probably not focused on the Quarterfinals either. They will most likely dial it in for the Semifinals and give themselves the best chance to qualify for the Games on that weekend, and then shift to their main priority which is to have the best possible outcome in Madison this summer.

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