Horvath, Toomey-Orr, Toomey-Orr, Horvath: The Champions’ Back-and-Forth Battle Continues at the Rogue Invitational
The headliner battle between the six-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and the reigning champion Laura Horvath escalated during Saturday’s first two events at the Rogue Invitational in Austin, TX.
Remind me: Thursday night’s event—a ruck run—belonged to Toomey-Orr, competing for the first time since having a baby in May, while Friday was Horvath’s time to shine. She beat Toomey-Orr on both events and snagged the lead by five points, heading into Saturday.
Saturday details so far: Toomey-Orr took the event win on Event 4—10 rounds for time of 4 ring muscle-ups, 8 handstand push-ups and 12 power snatches at 65 pounds—while Horvath struggled to keep pace on the high volume handstand push-ups. She finished 14th, giving the lead back to Toomey-Orr, who gained a 60-point buffer over Horvath. But Horvath turned around and displayed impressive athleticism on the very next event—a bracket-style sprint event involving going over, under and over a log before lifting three heavy sandbags into a teeter.
- Horvath attacked the sandbags aggressively, easily making the cuts each round and eventually edging out Paige Semenza to qualify for the final against Dani Speegle.
- “I just raced to the level of my competitors. Every time a heat went faster, I just went faster,” Horvath said of how she qualified for the final.
In the end, Speegle beat Horvath in a photo finish, but Horvath’s performance helped her pick up 95 points, while Toomey-Orr failed to make the top 10 cut. She finished 12th overall, allowing Horvath to cut 50 points off her lead.
The bottom line: With one event to go on Saturday—a one rep max deadlift—Toomey-Orr leads Horvath by 10 points, but it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top.
Considering Horvath is known for her strength and Toomey-Orr possibly hasn’t fully regained her pre-pregnancy strength, it’s certainly looking good for Horvath to chip away a bit more, and possibly even reclaim the lead heading into the final day of competition.
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