Competition

Karin Frey Holds Lead as Jamie Simmonds Slips Heading into Dubai Fitness Championship Finale

December 3, 2022 by and
Photo Credit: Dubai Fitness Championship
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How heavy can you hang clean? 

That was the first task of the day on Day 2 of the Dubai Fitness Championships in what became an exciting show of strength throughout the elimination-style ladder event at the Coca-Cola Arena in the UAE. (Note: All leaderboards are unofficial until tomorrow.)

The details: Originally, the hang clean ladder was set to end at 112.5kg (246.5lb), but when eight of the 20 women in the field hit that lift, they kept adding weight until just one woman remained.

  • Slovakia’s Karin Frey and Oihana Moya Oliver of Spain were the last two women standing. Both women made 120kg (264lb) look easy, but only Frey was able to hit 122kg (268.4lb), giving her the event win.
  • For Jamie Simmonds, the leader after Day 1, the event was a damage control one, which wasn’t a surprise, as the 2019 CrossFit Games podium finisher isn’t known for her pure strength. She managed to clean 107kg (235.4lb), keeping her in the middle of the pack—11th place.
  • Overall, as strength events often do, Event 2 caused a huge leaderboard shuffle, as the second and third place athletes after Day 1—Aimee Cringle and Emily Rolfe—both finished toward the bottom (15th and 17th respectively). Meanwhile, one athlete who found herself on the winning side of the shuffle was Dana Paran. She was 10th going into the event and lifted 117kg (257.4lb), good enough for third.

Event 3: The day continued with a three-round workout of SkiErg calories, toes-to-bar and snatches that decreased in reps, but increased in load each round.

Heat one for the women set the tone for the day, proving it would come down to the final set of 10 heavy snatches at 60kg (132lb).

  • It was the Canadian rookie, Freya Moosbrugger who took the come-from-behind heat win, cycling her snatches faster than the Belgian, Manon Angonese. Moosbrugger finished in a time of 17:20, with Angonese coming in :25 later. 

In the final heat, Norwegian Matilde Garnes got out to an early lead with Simmonds and Moya Oliver close behind by the end of the first round.

  • Similar to heat one, Frey made her move when she got to the final set of snatches. While Simmonds struggled, Frey power snatched all 10 reps taking the heat and the event win. Andrea Solberg finished second, and Simmonds third.

Event 4: Day 2 finished with “Ride or Die,” an elimination-style event of Echo bike and legless rope climbs. All athletes competed in round one, but then the field was cut to 10 for the semifinal round and down to 5 for the final. The first round included 30 calories on the Echo Bike and 3 legless rope climbs for the women.

  • In heat one of round one, Manon Angonese came across the line first at 2:32 followed by American, Dana Paran.
  • The Swede, Hanna Karlsson, in the second heat of the opener, took the win at 2:30, followed closely by Frey and Simmonds.

As the field was cut to 10, the workload also decreased–with a 3 minute cap, the women tackled 20 calories on the Echo Bike and 2 legless rope climbs.

  • With only two heats of 5 this round, all the athletes hit full send, hammering the bike as hard as possible.
  • Paran was first off the bike, followed by Garnes, after the rope climbs these two women crossed the line first, followed by Claudia Gluck from France. All three women finished between 1:30-1:40.
  • In the second semifinal heat, Karlsson set an early hard pace on the bike and was the first off. She took the heat win, followed by Frey and Simmonds, again all three finished in the 1:30s.

After the final cut, five athletes took the floor–Paran, Karlsson, Simmonds, Frey and Garnes.

  • Once again the workload decreased, this time a two minute cap and 10 calories on the bike followed by 1 legless rope climb.
  • It was fast and furious and all five women sent it on the bike. Karlsson was first off, and when the dust settled, she took the win in a time of :40.75, three seconds ahead of Paran and five seconds ahead of Frey and Garnes, who tied with a time of :45.53.

The big picture: After a big second day that included two event wins, Frey heads into the final day of competition as your leader, while Simmonds is 45 points behind in second. And, thanks to a fourth place finish on Event 2 and an event win on Event 4, Karlsson has jumped into third, just five points behind Simmonds. With one day and four events to go, any one of those top three women still have a realistic shot at the top spot.

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