London, England.

The 2022 CrossFit Force In-Depth Semifinal put a cap on day one, and it’s Emma McQuaid, willy georgeand CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue in the driver’s seat.

Women

While McQuaid holds the lead, it actually comes through a tiebreaker over two other women. And while that means she had the best event result of the three, it also means she had the worst. McQuaid game veterans, Jacqueline Dahlstromand Thuri Helgadottir are all tied at 176 points. McQuaid was seventh and first, Dahlstrom sixth and second, and Helgadottir showed the most consistency with fifth and third.

One of the biggest stories this weekend is that of the UK Sam Briggs who is trying to qualify for the Games in the elite division at forty. If she is able to do it, it will be the first time anyone has done it in over a decade. Well, she’s off to a great start with third and ninth place finishes so far. She is fourth overall and will be in the last heat tomorrow, as opposed to the first today.

The final spot at the Games is held by one of the popular picks to qualify for the Games as a rookie this season in Europe. Solveig Sigurdardottir progressing steadily for two seasons. She placed herself in a great position through two events. She took second and 11th place on the first day; she is eight points ahead of Nicole Heer in sixth.

Katrin Davidsdottir, who has played in the past seven consecutive CrossFit Games and is seeking his tenth overall trip to the Games currently finds himself tied for 9th place. She looked great in the long endurance test and held a lead in her race in a round of the second test. That lead didn’t last long, however, as her old nemesis, the muscle-up in the ring, slowed her down to the end of her run and an 18th-place finish overall.

Men

Willy Georgers seems to be back. He is well documented on the operation which prevented him from playing last season. A year later and for a day he looked great, taking fourth place on the long aerobic piece, then showing tremendous shoulder ability on the ring muscles and hanging snatches en route to a second place finish. during event two. After one day, he is twenty points ahead of the field.

There are three Finns in the top seven, but only two in the top five. Sitting on the outside, looking inside is the sixth fittest man of the past year, Jonne Koski. While the compatriots Henrik Haapalainen (3rd) and Ludwig Hahnsson (5th) are both in qualifying position. Haapalainen was of course also present at the Games last year, he took 18th place; he won the first event in convincing fashion to start his weekend.

Hahnsson is much less well known. He has a background in handball and long distance running. Unsurprisingly, he seemed extremely calm throughout the twenty minutes copper field coaching. What was surprising was his ability to do ring muscle ups, and even more so hang snatches which he did faster than most other men.

The last two places for the Games belong to Elliot Simmonds (2nd) and Giorgos Karavis (4th- on a tiebreaker behind Haapalainen). Karavis started slow with an 11th, but came back with an event win over Havisham. Simmonds was the opposite, he came out second in the first event and slipped to a ninth place finish in the second.

Several Games challengers are currently lurking outside of qualifying. But perhaps most surprisingly last year’s 15th fittest man, André Houdet, who placed 19th and 8th respectively in events one and two, and finds himself 54 points clear of qualifying in 14th overall. There have been athletes this semi-final season who have bounced back from the worst, but Houdet will need to be much cleaner from now on if he is to return to the Games.

Teams

The headlines will be about CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue, like it should be. While everyone made this season’s team competition on the battle between Mayhem and Reykjavik, it doesn’t seem fair for the finalist from last year’s Games. They added former Norwegian national champion Nicolay Billaudel to their roster this season, possibly even improving their roster from last year. They won the European team quarter-finals with just 14 points and no worse than fourth in the continent, and they won the first two events in London by almost a minute each. It’s still early in the weekend, but they couldn’t have had a more impressive start.

Two other Norwegian teams join Oslo in the top five:

• CrossFit Sarphsborg sit second after finishing 3rd and 4th on day one.
• And CrossFit Trondheim is fourth with slightly more variable finishes of 2nd and 10th.

At the end of the first day, the two other qualifying teams are Aylesbury CrossFit Team TAPs who placed second in event two and Mayflower CrossFit. Both were top-five seeded teams and strong picks to compete in the Games.