Jeffrey Adler is the New Fittest Man on Earth
The final day of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games kicked off at North Park, with ring muscle ups and a new strongman challenge of moving sandbags over logs. The rest of the day was spent at the Coliseum, where the athletes started with eight rounds of parallel bar traverses, heavy double unders and sled pulls. The weekend would finish with the Echo bike and ascending thrusters, before overhead lunging to the end of their 2023 CrossFit Games.
The question heading into the final day was if Jeffrey Adler would complete the comeback run he started on Saturday, where he cut Roman Khrennikov’s 100 point lead down to just 13 points. We found out the answer to this early on Sunday, as he passed Khrennikov in the first test of the day and would solidify his victory in the final two tests while Khrennikov was dealing with an injury to his left foot that occurred during the “Muscle-up Logs” test.
Jeffrey Adler passed Roman Khrennikov for the overall lead after his win in Test 10: Muscle-up Logs. This was the second test win of the weekend for Adler and it came at a crucial time with two tests remaining. Khrennikov finished in fourth and slid back into second place standing just two points behind Adler.
- Adler said he had an understanding with Patrick Vellner to help him pass Roman Khrennikov on the leaderboard. When asked to elaborate, he simply stated: “I need help, Roman’s too fit.”
- Fellow Canadian Patrick Vellner moved into podium position, as he continued his charge up the leaderboard by capitalizing on a test that highlighted two of his strengths…ring muscle ups and moving up-and-over an object. His fifth place finish in “Muscle-up Logs” helped him create a four-point lead over Chandler Smith for third place.
- What we didn’t know at the time was that Roman Khrennikov got injured during “Muscle-up Logs.” Shortly following the test, it became known that Khrennikov injured his left foot when he landed on a sandbag coming over a log at the end of the test. He was seen in a wheelchair behind the scenes, but the decision was announced that he would finish the weekend and still compete.
Roman Khrennikov’s grit stole the show during Test 11: Parallel-bar Pull. The final two tests had no minimum work requirement, so Khrennikov didn’t need to worry about being disqualified, but he chose to perform heavy rope double unders on one foot. His heart and no-quit attitude had the entire stadium emotionally chanting his name and he would later say in a post-test interview, he wants to be a hero to his son.
- Brent Fikowski demolished the “Parallel-bar Pull,” earning the eighth test win of his career, tying him for third all-time in the men’s division. In his post-test interview, he emotionally steered the attention away from himself and back to Khrennikov’s incredible effort, saying: “He has the courage of 10 men.”
- Patrick Vellner’s second place in “Parallel-bar Pull” began to solidify his place on the podium. He was the only man besides Brent Fikowski to finish the test in under eight minutes.
Jeffrey Adler sealed his CrossFit Games victory with his fifth place finish in Test 12: Echo Thruster Final. This concluded an incredible weekend for Adler, where he only finished outside the top 10 twice. He finished in the top five in half of the total tests, two of which were test wins. After the announcement of his victory, he humbly thanked his coach/fiance, Caroline Lambray, saying he could never have done this without her.
- Patrick Vellner finished on the podium for the fifth time in his career, starting slow and getting better as the weekend went on in typical Vellner fashion.
Roman Khrennikov still finished on the podium despite taking last in the final two tests due to injury. Brent Fikowski gave everything he had to make it an all-Canadian podium on the men’s side, but the buffer of points Khrennikov had built all weekend was too much in the end.
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