Welllll the final week of The Open came around and in a format used commonly in the past – you were going to have to do a workout fast to be allowed to do more of a workout, and if you were fast enough, you got to do even more!
The enemy of many, wall walks reared their head again for the third year in a row, now they were included with double unders and snatches.
The chat around the gym was that Green was vulnerable and with Red being only 1 point behind. With enough momentum they were a good chance to take it out. Blue had come from a long way back and Purple had also shown they had the ability to win a workout overall.
It was great to see Red members like Nat D, Ching and Stew all repping green gear during the week to help provide heartwarming energy towards Green's cause.
It was an amazing year for participation. We only had 2 workouts not completed by people who didn't have injuries that rendered them unable to complete the workout.
Things Gary heard:
“I don’t want to feel pressured to do the workouts hard so please don’t put me in a faction this year” – Marshall pre Open.
“I’m going to redo this workout, I really want to get one more rep” – Marshall on 23.3
“Will the teams get compared at some point and if so how are we comparing?” – Poor Adrian got dobbed in by his team last week. The editor obviously isn’t getting the info out there well enough!
Notable performances:
*This week due to the elapsing clock and frustrating nature of double under there were several funny moments but sadly we can't mention them all. _ Cooper for getting no repped on his last HSPU (by yours truly) and keeping composed enough to get it out with only a few seconds remaining. Followed by only a very mild dummy spit in frustration (that’s good for Coops). _ Shaun B with his calves of glass (a sign of an alpha male) rising to the occasion to crank out some nice doubles. A video of his team captain Wacey and fellow Blue team members is below:
_ Nate with the dummy spit nomination after some wall kicks on Friday night. Even the most unflappable are human!
_ Liz was surrounded by a cheering crowd on Monday and very impressively after a miss managed to stand up the third bar. Sadly it was just after the time elapsed. Ditto for Liam too. _ Duncan after accidentally taking viagra before Friday Nights workout had a hard time getting through the snatches. But Monday he did a very impressive redo and got deep into the HSPU.
_ Anyone who hung around to see Conor's effort on Monday saw something special.
By the numbers: 0 – the number of weeks left Elyse has left with us. Sadly she is moving up North. She will be greatly missed, make sure you pop by regularly!
1 - The extra snatches Brett needed to go into the 3rd round!
4 - the number of times Nate did 23.3!
4 - Placing for Conor Worldwide in the 16-17yo category!
4 - The ranking for our team score among affiliates in Western Australia across The Open.
7 - Emily's worldwide ranking for upper extremity!
8456 - Chris Loftus' phone passcode.
Weekly Standings:
Sadly under the pressure of expectation, Red had two people not submit scores this week. In a sport where you want scores, not scoring doesn't help. Blue on the back, or should I say the arm of Emily finishing the workout along with some other high scores, managed to take the win for the week!
4th - Red (1487 reps)
3rd - Purple (1718 reps)
2nd - Green (1977)
1st - Blue (2093)
With a handsome week 3 lead, Blue took the choccies, how would the overall numbers fall?
Overall Standings:
BLUE CAME FROM BEHIND TO GET THE WIN! Is what I would have said if they could have just finished one place higher in one of the workouts.
=3rd - Red & Purple (11 placing points)
2nd - Blue (9 placing points)
1st - Green (8 placing points)
In a very close year, if everyone from Blue had just gotten 2kg more in 23.2B, they would have won. Are people more likely to dwell on things they didn't do despite their best efforts rather than appreciate their victories and be happy with a life with so much to celebrate and be grateful for? Yes. You'll most likely lie in bed in 7 years' time still thinking about that you this.
The only thing left to do for team Green is to go out and get their agreed-upon matching victory tattoos! The final design is on the left.
In all seriousness thank you to everyone who got involved!
Everyone has such great attitudes, helps out without being asked and I can't remember a single complaint (at least to my face). It made it really easy and a lot of fun.
The biggest thanks however goes to Nate, Wacey and Liz - the captains. These 3 do a power of work and take out a lot of their time. The Open without the factions I know certainly isn't anywhere near as much fun.
See you all again next year! I'll be the one with a giant green back tat!