Nerding Out at Semifinals: Day 2 at North America West Semifinals
There’s nothing a Crossfit fan loves more than heavy snatches, and that’s exactly what we were blessed with on Day 2, “moving day” at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Semifinals.
As a part of this gift we saw two new snatch world records, along with a new Test world record in Test 3.
Yesterday the athletes of North America West showed why their Semifinal was ranked the #1 most competitive among all regions.
Some athletes have already solidified their place at the 2023 Crossfit Games, but most spots were still up for grabs with only 200 available points on Sunday.
As we finished off the first 5 Tests, let’s see some of the craziest, coolest, and most unexpected stats of Day 2.
- With his 325-pound snatch in Test 4, Tudor Magda set the new Semifinals world record and tied the all-time record for a max snatch hit at a live Crossfit competition (Anthony Davis 325).
- With her 215-pound snatch in Test 4, Hannah Black set the new Semifinals world record. She also had the highest opening lift of any female with her first snatch being set at 205lbs.
- Colten Mertens set the new Test 3 “Linda” world record with a time of 11:06, shattering the old world record by 58 seconds, set by Samuel Cournoyer at North America East (12:04).
- Olivia Kerstetter got her 1st ever Semifinal Test win in Test 3 “Linda”.
- Patrick Vellner set the new Test 5 world record with a time of 2:56. Vellner and Brent Fikowski were the only two athletes among all Semifinals so far to finish Test 5 in under 3:00.
- Surprise athlete Hannah Black ended Day 2 in 6th overall, as she already had 3 Test finishes inside the top 6. She was only 3 points behind Bethany Shadburne in 5th.
- At the end of Day 2, Arielle Loewen (1st overall) and Katrin Davidsdottir (2nd overall) were separated by just 1 point.
- 6 total athletes finished both the max snatch Test (Test 4) and 800m sprint Test (Test 5) in 10th place or better on both (Patrick Vellner, Brent Fikowski, Luis Mora, Samuel Kwant, Emily White, Abigail Domit).
- Brent Fikowski finished 2nd on both Test 4 and Test 5, and he now has 4 test finishes inside the top 5 out of 5 total Tests so far.
- Justin Medeiros has 3 straight test finishes in 10th or worse (10th, 12th, 13th, 24th). Each of those tests have been his worst test finishes ever at Semifinals.
- Barring complete collapses from the six athletes ahead of him, this will be the first in-person Crossfit competition that Justin Medeiros has not finished first since he finished second at the 2020 Games to Mat Fraser.
- 4 total men snatched 300+ pounds and 8 total women snatched 200+.
- Of the 197 men that have competed in CrossFit Semifinals Test 4 up to this point, five have snatched over 300 pounds: Darcy Hancock (305), Jayson Hopper (305), Gui Malheiros (310), Jake Douglas (310), and Tudor Magda (325).
- With an average test finish of 9th, Samuel Kwant has never been outside the top 10 on the leaderboard and he quietly sits in 5th overall, just 2 points behind 4th, and 3 points behind 3rd.
- Only 10 total points separated men’s 3rd-6th place going into the final day. (369-379).
- Cole Sager (12th overall) was sitting outside of a Games qualifying position at the end of Day 2.
As you can see from the numbers above, the North America West Semifinal was already one of the craziest so far in terms of story lines and even before the last day.
We were expecting to see multiple dark horse athletes make their 1st ever appearances at the Crossfit Games, as well as many other surprises on Sunday.
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