Quarterfinals Workout 1 Penalties Shake Up Leaderboard

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Penalties to Quarterfinals Workout 1 scores created chaos on the leaderboard. Get all the info below.

• Interview: Fan favorite Rebecca Fuselier on “Building Big Becca”

• Trevor Jones did his first seven CrossFit Opens while in prison. Out now, he just did his eighth and made Quarterfinals.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’ve gained a solid three pounds! I am 128 now!” - Rebecca Fuselier, proudly, on “Building Big Becca”

CROSSFIT QUARTERFINALS

Breaking: Quarterfinals Workout 1 Penalties Put Some Games Vets’ Seasons in Jeopardy

Some Games athletes who went to sleep last night feeling secure in their position on the Quarterfinals leaderboard woke up this morning with their season in peril.

What happened?: Starting around 5 p.m. PT, the CrossFit Games team began pushing updates to the 2024 CrossFit Games Quarterfinals leaderboard, specifically to the results of Workout 1. 

• As that score updated, the overall and region-specific leaderboards shuffled, moving some well-known Games athletes out of qualifying position for their Semifinal events. 

One big thing: As the old saying goes, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” and in this case, that means until the CrossFit Games team officially finalizes the leaderboard, setting the rosters for the seven in-person Semifinals.

Remind me: Section 2.09 of the 2024 CrossFit Games Rulebook states: “Leaderboards will not be set until after the video review process is complete. Only after this time will athletes know if they are advancing to the next stage of competition. CrossFit will make an announcement when each leaderboard is final.”

• The rulebook states that for Quarterfinals, the “Individual Leaderboard will be set no later than April 29, 2024.” 

The current round of penalties is focused on Workout 1, a “Fight Gone Bad”-style workout with one-minute working intervals in repeating rounds.

• Individual Quarterfinals Workout 1
  4 rounds for max reps of:
  
  1 minute of snatches
  1 minute of rowing for calories
  1 minute of dumbbell box step-ups
  1 minute of rest
  
  Men: 135-pound (61kg) barbell, 50-pound (22.5 kg) dumbbells, 20-inch box
  Women: 85-pound (38kg) barbell, 35-pound (15 kg) dumbbells, 20-inch box 

While it is not yet clear, the penalties likely came from the snatches and the box step-ups (although not properly displaying the rower screen could also be a culprit). 

CrossFit’s workout description listed the following as common “no reps” (note: this is not an exhaustive list):

• On the snatch – “Lowering the bar before full extension of the knees, hips, or arms.”

• On the box step-ups – “Descending before reaching full extension of the hips and/or legs.”  

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SPEED READS

2024 CrossFit Games Quarterfinals Leaderboards (unofficial, as of 2 p.m. PT, April 25, 2024)

• North America East
  1. Jeffrey Adler (20) | Alexis Raptis (22)
  2. Roman Khrennikov (31) | Emma Lawson (24)
  3. Jayson Hopper (35) | Danielle Brandon (44)
  4. Austin Hatfield (44) | Erica Folo (57)
  5. Dallin Pepper (55) | Haley Adams (70)

• North America West
  1. Justin Medeiros (35) | Alex Gazan (24)
  2. Brandon Luckett (42) | Emily Rolfe (33)
  3. Samuel Kwant (44) | Abigail Domit (35)
  4. Cole Greashaber (49) | Arielle Loewen (44)
  5. Zachery Buntin (51) | Rebecca Fuselier (73)

• Europe
  1. Jonne Koski (24) | Gabriela Migala (21)
  2. Victor Hoffer (47) | Laura Horvath (38)
  3. Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson (56) | Manon Angonese (54)
  4. Moritz Fiebig (74) | Emma Tall (57)
  5. Aniol Ekai (82) | Emma McQuaid (59)

• Oceania
  1. Ricky Garard (11) | Madeline Sturt (12)
  2. Jay Crouch (11) | Grace Walton (19)
  3. Bayley Martin (24) | Daisy McDonald (46)
  4. Ben Fowler (41) | Erika Plasty (54)
  5. Zac Thomas (62) | Jess Green (55)

• Asia 
  1. Ivan Kukartsev (21) | Seher Kaya (13)
  2. Morteza Sedaghat (47) | Seungyeon Choi (21)
  3. Mevlut Agir (70) | Dawon Jung (22)
  4. Seungjong Kim (78) | Evie Hollis (26)
  5. Ruslan Miftakhov (80) | Anastasiya Dodonova (28)

• South America
  1. Agustin Richelme (22) | Victoria Campos (29)
  2. Joao Pedro Barcelos (28) | Andreia Pinheiro (36)
  3. Bruno Marins (30) | Emily Andrade (61)
  4. Guilherme Malheiros (58) | Gabriella Luque (80)
  5. Juan Ignacio Sforzini (86) | Luiza Marques (89)

• Africa
  1. Kaelan Henry (10) | Christina Livaditakis (13)
  2. Ruan Duvenage (17) | Gemma Rader (17)
  3. Callum Deeble (34) | Dina Swift (26)
  4. Darren Zurnamer (38) | Gilmari Reyneke (36)
  5. Michael Van Tonder (40) | Reegan Finkel (47)

• Reminder: The top 40 men and women will qualify for Semifinals in each region. For full age-group leaderboards, refer to the CrossFit Games site.

• See Morning Chalk Up's full Quarterfinals coverage and learn all the details about qualifying for the next stage of the 2024 CrossFit Games season.

🚨 Update on Missing QF Leaderboard Scores: Brazilian athlete Larissa Cunha chimed in on social media yesterday with an explanation for her “0” score for Workout 1 on the Quarterfinals leaderboard. From her post, translated via Google Translate:

• “A summary of what's happening. Due to copyright [because of] the background music, my video on YouTube was blocked and CrossFit was unable to access it during the Quarterfinals competition.”

• “I received an email yesterday warning me that my 24.1 score had been invalidated. The video is now unlocked and CrossFit has access to the link.”

• “I sent an email with evidence that the video had been made and posted before the deadline and that the problem was a technical failure on YouTube that blocked it. I am aware that more athletes from other regions are going through a similar situation and have had their scores reset. I'm waiting for answers from CrossFit. I will update you with any news.”

Madrid Championship X 2: There will be two editions of the Madrid Championship in 2024. First, the MAD Fitness Festival will take place June 28-30 at the Quijote Arena in Ciudad Real, Spain, then the Mad Fittest Cup on November 22-24 at the Centro Deportivo Municipal Gallur, Madrid, Spain.

👑🏆 TYR Wodapalooza’s LatAm Cup is Expanding: In 2024, the Second Annual TYR WZA LatAm Cup will include 10 events in 10 countries, culminating in the final championship at WZA Miami in January 2025.

🎟️ 🎟️ CrossFit Asia Semifinal: The Far East Throwdown, the 2024 CrossFit Asia Semifinal, will take place May 17-19 at the BEXCO Exhibition and Convention Center in Busan, South Korea. Tickets are available now!

✍️📋 Rogue Invitational 2024 Volunteer Applications: In case you missed the announcement, the Rogue Invitational is going international in 2024, and you can be there, behind the scenes, for all the action in Aberdeen, Scotland. Get more information and apply now. 

ICYMI: Big lifts bring us to our feet and inspire us to get stronger. Here’s a look back at some of our favorite big lifts from the past.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

“Building Big Becca:” Rebecca Fuselier’s Journey to Get Strong

Perhaps the most iconic image of the 2022 CrossFit Games was Rebecca Fuselier climbing the Capitol stairs. 

Hugging that Rogue Husafell bag close to her body with pain in her eyes, the entire CrossFit community watched as this 125-pound athlete gave it everything she had.

When Competition Director Adrian Bozman asked her at the halfway point of the stairs if she realistically thought she could finish, she said: “I’ll die before I quit.” 

The 2022 CrossFit Games

There were several other events in Madison that year that tested the strength of this 5’2” athlete. 

Fuselier was last on the Sandbag Ladder, tapping out after 160 pounds. She was also last on the Alpaca and the Back Nine, where she could not move the 485-pound yoke an inch.

It was clear that if Fuselier were going to progress competitively in CrossFit, something would have to give. 

• She was going to have to get big.

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COMMUNITY

After 27 Years in Prison, Trevor Jones Competes in Quarterfinals 

Trevor Jones has done the CrossFit Open workouts for the last eight years, but he only registered for the first time this season.

That’s because Jones did his seven other Opens while serving a 27-year prison sentence in Colorado after being convicted of murder when he was 17 years old.

• “I was involved in a homicide over a gun deal that had gone wrong, and a kid who was 16 lost his life,” Jones tells the Morning Chalk Up, describing what happened back in 1996. Jones says he was trying to scam a kid — who was selling him and his friends a gun — out of $100.

According to Jones, pulling the trigger was an accident, a fatal accident, but one that has made it difficult for Jones, now 45, to ever be able to forgive himself.

• “Have I forgiven myself? That’s about one of the most complicated questions of my life, and I’ll be honest, probably not…For me to forgive myself, I’m just not sure actually it ultimately makes sense,” Jones, who was released from prison in June 2023, says.

Jones hasn’t been able to forgive himself, but now that he’s a free man again, he’s doing his best to live a life that gives back to others. He has CrossFit and the owner of Mach983 CrossFit in Aurora, CO, Fred Dayton, to thank for that.

Finding CrossFit

When Jones was incarcerated at Limen Correctional Facility in Lincoln Country, CO, he became involved with Redemption Road Fitness Foundation. This nonprofit started at Limon in 2017 and provides exercise-based rehabilitation and Level 1 and 2 certifications to current and former people in prison.

Thanks to Redemption Road, which brought both equipment and volunteer coaches into the prison, Jones was introduced to CrossFit when he was serving his sentence. This allowed him to focus his attention on something positive and healthy during this “very dark world,” he says. 

• “Sometimes CrossFit was the only thing that made any sense to me,” Jones says.

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

• 🎂Happy birthday to Anders Varner and Paul Tremblay.

• Great work to Brent of CrossFit Fortify in Richwood, TX, for battling Parkinson’s with fitness.

• Congratulations to 73-year-old Stephen of Torrance Training Lab in Torrance, CA, on tackling Quarterfinals.

• Nice job to Bruna of CrossFit Relegare in Brazil on the 107-kilo/235-pound complex.

• 😮‍💨Congratulations to Augustin Richelme on his record-setting Quarterfinals workout #3.