Competition

Three Takeaways From Day 1 of the 2021 Rogue Invitational

October 29, 2021 by
Photo Credit: Athlete's Eye Photography
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Day 1 of the 2021 Rogue Invitational came to an end at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas with the leader in CrossFit equipment concluding an action-packed day of fitness and strength with their version of “Friday Night” lights. Here are three takeaways from the first day of competition.

  1. No post-Games hangover for “Iceland Annie”: Just like the Games it appears that Annie Thorisdottir has been grossly underestimated. The reigning third “Fittest Woman on Earth” had her a day, winning the opening event of the competition and followed that with an impressive sixth place in a “Bella Complex” event full of strong women. She showed the same enthusiasm and joy on the weightlifting platform that she had during the snatch event at the Games. She appears to have carried over her confidence from the Games and could present a challenge to Tia-Clair Toomey. Thorisdottir sits in second place after day 1 with 175 points, just 15 point behind Toomey.
Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography
  1. “Fantasy” Legend teams are a hit: The opinion of this writer is that Rogue is onto something here with the Legends division. It was a popular attraction in 2019 when they introduced the division. This year the division made its return but with a different twist, teams of two. They also scaled back the events and made it more of an exhibition with no points earned and no leaderboard. But when you get a group of the sport’s greats and you put them in any form of competition you are going to see them all go for the win. Especially when Rich Froning is involved and he’s going against former rivals from his individual competition days. The crowd got behind it and it truly was a sight to see as the team of Froning and Mikko Salo came from behind to beat Josh Bridges and Jason Khalipa. Even better was the greats taking laps and giving the fans high-fives afterwards. Two more events are in store for these greats, one for each day of competition. That’s two more chances for fans to make new memories and witness greatness on the competition floor by some of the best that ever competed.
Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography
  1. The home of “Friday Night Lights”: If you’re going to do a “Friday Night Lights” what better place than the state that coined that term. The term was coined for high school football and was forever immortalized by H.G. Bissinger’s novel of the same name and later a movie. So when Rogue decided to hold their own version of “Friday Night Lights” during the “Bella Complex” they no doubt wanted to give the athletes the experience that one would get from a Texas high school game. The athletes no doubt felt like the Permian Panthers as the crowd was cheering and willing the athletes to lift big and celebrate even bigger. Fireworks were even fired off over the minor league baseball field as Laura Horvath and Toomey battled back and forth for the event win. But it was Guilherme Malheiros who stole the show as he won with a lift of 367 LBs and didn’t even attempt his third lift as he secured the win while playing to the crowd. What does Rogue have in store for Day 2?

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