What a final week it was #intheopen. Much like Nikki Webster’s music career, the flame burned brightly but after 5 weeks it was always going to end. Dave Castro put the world into a state of anarchy as he gave everyone the opportunity to choose their own fate. Lifetime friendships were broken, internet arguments raged and many speculate that the confusion forced Cameron Bancroft to tamper with a cricket ball. In the end, I think the best choice for community won out, everyone would suffer for 7 minutes regardless.. Similar to watching an episode of Bachelor in Paradise, but the pain would be considerably shorter.
In the end we were left with a workout for a third repeat, a variant of the most iconic CrossFit workout: Fran - 3-6-9-12-etc of Thrusters and Chest to Bar Pull Ups. Like Frodo and Sam heading into Mordor, many approached the workout not realising the terribleness ahead.
The workout in the end gave something for everyone. Either a fast paced workout or an opportunity for many to hit a new heavy Thruster, their first Pull Up or Chest to Bar Pull Up. In my opinion, the atmosphere at Friday Night Lights was the best in the entire 5 weeks.
Durty Mike and Mitch Bell both asked to come in early, and in their words, “hype the crowd with a pre game show”. As the clock sounded, signifying the conclusion of 7 minutes, a sweaty Mitch dropped to one knee, motionless for a what seemed an eternity. He then slowly swivelled his head towards me and with a glint in his eye said, “Good luck getting anywhere near that champ”. He stood up, draped his towel around his shoulders and just walked out of the gym while waving his index finger to the sky. Leaving all his Barbell, gear and clothes strewn everywhere. It was a big statement.
One of my personal highlights for the Open was that we had a drop in from Europe. She has been in WA for the duration of the Open and had dropped into several boxes to do the WODs. She said that our environment was so much better then anyone else’s and everyone was so welcoming and friendly. And while I already knew this, it made me extremely proud and grateful for you all.
The real talking point during the week and Friday night was; 'could Black ride the wave of their new found momentum and snatch victory from the mouth of Blue?' Gold were obviously out of the equation and that was confirmed by their captain not evening showing up to Friday Night Lights. “I gotta finish the last season of Peaky Blinders” Kat was reported saying. I would have thought she would take a lead from Steve Smith’s book, accept responsibility and go down with the ship, but hey that’s just me.
At 8am Tuesday, the final scores were locked in, and the results came through:
1st Place: Blue 391
2nd Place: Gold 407
3rd Place: Black 412
It was the closest overall weekly result of the Open, leaving the final scoreboard sitting at:
1st Place: Blue 2346
2nd Place: Black 2448
3rd Place: Gold 2589
Like Winx winning another record race, it extremely exciting, but it was by no means a surprise. We managed to grab Blue Captain Wacey Brown for his comments. “First of all I would like to thank both Gold and Blue for their efforts each week. Both teams put up a strong fight and with the quality each team possessed we knew if we took our foot off the pedal at any stage they would run right over the top of us. Talk within our camp was always just taking it one week at a time, treating each week like a new competition and focusing on the things we could control. There’s no point worrying about Black because they have their own strengths and there wasn’t much point worrying about Gold because I just don’t think with their developing leadership, this wasn’t going to be their year.
Falling short week 4 in many ways was the loss we needed to have, a lesser side might have capitulated but for us we really came together and galvanised - with a new and stronger focus.
Each week we would just look over and refocus on our KPI’s and that held us in good stead. The stats that we identified early in the season as the most important, we ended up leading the competition in: Participation, attempting RX and also warm up area banter. Participation was always the big one, if we got everyone on the park we were confident with the talent we possessed we would get it done and that turned out to be the case.
What did I say before the final workout? I knew everyone was super focused, so I didn’t say a whole heap. I just reminded everyone to stick to their role, follow the processes and remember that this would be the last time this group would come together as a team. Things change from year to year that’s inevitable, but we can control both our own preparation and the effort we put in tonight. I was proud of everyone effort and I think that was reflected in the final result”.
Out of the Mouth: Week 5
Tobey: “It’s a great feeling coming to Friday Night Light’s but not doing the workout”.
Kat Birch: “Nah not coming this week” Kai Garner: “I just want to beat my sister!”
Marc Fisher: “Sorry I didn’t do the workout this week, God if Blue don’t win you know who (Sasha) will never let me hear the end of it. Brad Carey: "For a woman to be fitter then a man they need to do the same weights as us".
18.5 – The Numbers:
0 – The number of people who scaled the 18.5
13 – The amount of reps Mitch Conte and Chris Loftus beat Mat Fraser by (when you combine their scores)
62 - The amount of times Durty Mike mentioned his own hight during the course of the Opens.
158 – Junko’s worldwide position for the 60+ category.
357 – Chris' worldwide position for the 55-59 category.
526 – Jack’s worldwide psotion for the 55-59 category.
21,242 – The amount of places Ashley Neumeier (8,123) beat Brad Carey (29,365) by in the Worldwide Leaderboard.
Notable Performances:
Theresa getting a new 1RM Thruster and getting her first Pull Up!
Myra getting her first Pull Up!
Chrsitie and Anna both brining cartons of beer along.
Fines over the Open:
Nass: For continually leaving his Facebook page logged in and resulting in the mental degradation of his team. Also the rest of the black team for dropping their bundle.
Nass: Injuring his knee ROLLER SKATING! Man....come on..
Duncan: 'Those' gold shorts. Wearing coloured clothing isn’t a licence to mentally scar people with revealing clothing.
Paul Watts: Finally working on double unders just before the Open and then crushing them. Imagine how they will be in 6 months!
Ryan Smith: For crashing his car the start of the Open and loading up on painkillers to get through the WODs.
Liz Bellis: Lighting her apartment on fire.
Dan D: Blowing his elbow out just before going on a Ski holiday. Coming back and smoking the Open.
Liz: For swearing a lot in front of impressionable children. Well done on corrupting the D'Ambrosio children, word is they're now going for a 6th just so one of them can be pure...
Bernie: Despite his judge counting out loud, continually asked how many reps he had left in 18.5
Sean Sweeney: Running to the fridge mid WOD for a FItAid.
Sean Sweeney: Yelling out "HELP ME" at the end of 18.1
Kat Birch: Refusing to do warm up lifts or 18.2a and beating her previous lift.
Ryan Smith: For delighting us with a plethora of pain faces.
Chris Loftus: Starting a campaign for him to get the best judge award. (There is no such award).
Cooper: Got a 15kg Power Clean PR in 18.2!
Cooper: Having his first in-wod meltdown 2 weeks later. (Luckily Mr Siekierka wasn't there to bare witness and hand out a red detention card).
Ben: Not doing 18.2 because he injured his intercostal sneezing.
Dave Flack: Got 0 Double Unders in the first 7 minutes and then got 21 double unders in the remaining 7.
Mike Connors: Complaining about every workout being bad for tall people.
Kat Birch: For giving up on her repeat because she thought she had to do 21 Chest to Bars but was only on the 18.
Kate and Kai Garner: Couldn't even get their own flesh and blood on their side, Noah rocked up to 18.4 in black and blue.. yehh buddyyyy
Zach: Having 12 beers before his 18.3 redo and smashing his old score.
Sasha Jones: Not doing 18.5 because it was her birthday, despite having 5 days to complete the WOD..
Bobbi: Spending so much time on her Chest to Bar Pull-Ups, she forgot the log 18.5.
As we wrap everything up I would like to thank everyone for being you. The atmosphere and camaraderie was amazing to be apart of, and I feel that everyone really helped to get the best out of each other. Everyone has their different reasons for doing the Open, and to have over 70 people on the journey made for an incredible experience.
Stayed tuned for details on the after party, where all the votes will be tallied, and the award winners will be announced. Everyone can have a few drinks and talk about how awesome we were. See you there!
Forever yours in Blue,
Coach Jason.
