The Open Close Opens for 26'

Wellllllcommme back one and all for what is looking to be one of the most exciting In-House open competitions in years. Could this be the year Green finally gets topped?! My guess is no. A year is a long time, and since we last closed, plenty of things have been opening. The US Department of Justice have opened (some) of the Epstein files, Bad Bunny opened the Superbowl and people everywhere opened Google Translate. You could open all of the bottled water in the world, and it would be less water than the water that was used to cool AI servers in 2025! But that won't stop Nat Danks from asking ChatGPT what pace she should do her burpees at. There's plenty of water!

And finally, Dave Castro opened the CrossFit Open of 2026. We're back, baby!

Sadly, this year we lost a team Captain as Jess has taken the year off to "focus on her running". Just like the prevalent pentagonal symmetry in nature (such as flowers and starfish), there are now 5 CrossFit Claremont Factions. After last year's abomination, Chris has abandoned Pink and jumped ship to team Gold.

The captains gathered on Tuesday for another exciting draft, proving nepotism is dead and friendships mean nothing. The Walker household is a house divided as Jas passed on Lauren (was never going to take her in the first rounds) and Nat D (despite having Nikki's word she'd be picked for purple), went to team Gold. The game is the game and the teams were strong. Except for Blue, who left Sam out of the team chat until Sunday. Wacey obviously with more important people to worry about.

In case you missed the teams:

BLUE	GOLD	GREEN	RED	PURPLE
Wacey Brown	Chris Loftus	Jason Walker	Nate Smiler	Nikki Ascott
Emma Sutton	Chloe Anderson	Alexia Riotto	Bella Teakle	Claire Davis
Georgia Welsman	Ellen Hayes	Evie Burton	Emily Cairns	Georgia Dobbs
Justine Hersard	Jessica Hendriks	Grace Bayley	Jess Hayes	Laura Goozee
Karen Dogg Gudmundottir	Liv Darby	Kate Etherington	Kate Moore	Lauren Walker
Kristina Sartirana	Natalie Danks	Lucy Kramer	Molly Modgers	Olivia Rodeghiero
Milla Kuitunen	Petra Martincic	Sophie Hall	Reta Tautogi	Tobey Robinson
	Rose McDonnell	Gerogia Bird	Bec Vester
	Maire McHugh
Adam Lawless	Brett Cobb	Adam Ruddlesden	Cooper Lindsay	Atlan Devin
Albert Valls Lagunas	Dan Turley	Ben Caine	Duncan Lane	Ben Lindquist
Angus Moylan	Kyle Bradley	Hector Scordia	Geoff Devin	Ervin Ng
David Hall	Lawson Baker	Mick Kelly	Pablo Stegerhock	Jake Lauder
Fergus Kiley	Peter Lyons	Mitch Bell	Paulo Martins	Josh Ellis
Lee Chapman	Quentin Lenormand	Paul Moraine	Tom Waters	Robert Dwyer
Sam Jones	Ryan Dinesh	Peter D'Alessandro	Zane Cobb	Shaun Breukelaar
Tom Jones		Sebastian Caine	Justin Creighton	Tim Day
Mitch Hoar

A huge welcome to people doing their first Open, please if you see these people, do your best to help them out and make their experience as enjoyable as possible.

Atlan Devin, Alexia Riotto, Ellen Hayes, Hector Scordia, Justine Hersard, Lee Chapman, Liv Darby, Marie McHugh, Olivia Rodeghiero, Paul Moraine, Petra Martincic, Sam Jones, Sebastian Caine, Sophie Hall, Zane Cobb

These folks aren't doing their first open, but they are doing their first Open at CrossFit Claremont. Same goes as above.

Dan Turley, Evie Burton, Georgia Dobbs, Jake Lauder, Karen Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, Kate Etherington, Paulo Martins, Reta Tautogi, Tom Waters

26.1 was released in the wee hours of the morning, and 24 hours later, World War 3 begins. So I suppose the debate is finally settled, more people dislike wall balls than like them.

A leg-heavy workout with a potential 246 Wall Balls, Jake of Laud Recovery started licking his lips at the damage about to be inflicted on people's quads and the sale of recovery boots and massage guns to skyrocket!

For your mere mortals, this workout wasn't going to be finished, and thankfully, the 12 min time cap would put most of us out of our misery.

Cooper had to get the workout in early before hitting the beat on Friday night and set a seriously cracking speed. A total of 237 reps, (27 reps from finishing), he finished 33rd in Australia and 299th in the world. A seriously impressive effort!

Friday night was a huge turnout for a long weekend. Some came in with ambitious plans (like Lauren saying she'd go unbroken) and some flawed systems (like Mitch Bell having a meticulous plan for all his wall ball sets EXCEPT the 66). Some just wanted to not throw up, like Shaun B.

Vibes were high, squats were low (and if they weren't, Tobey would suggest you wear lifters as she did to Laura G..)

Milla took on the box steps overs like a mime pretending to go down stairs, and Tim enlisted medical help after shinning his leg (he asked Rose to get him some ice).

Tom J was voted best dressed Friday night, despite a valiant effort from Fergus and Chris, and his score received a 10% increase.

By the numbers: 0 - The number of times that Green hasn't taken out the faction title.

1 - Number of people who forgot to log a score. (Sorry, Mitch!)

2 - Number of Irvin Ng's competing in the Open! Same name, same nationality, and almost the exact same score!

10 - Number of minutes on the timer for the captain's run. (Jason had planned to be done by then). Thanks Mitch B, for stepping in with a spare! 11 - Number of countries we have represented in the gym for The Open! (Australia 49, NZ 7, Great Britain 7, Ireland 6 (always thought it was a part of Great Britain, but hey you learn something new every day!) France 2, Spain 1, Portugal 1, Argentina 1, Samoa 1, Iceland 1).

27- Number of reps Cooper had left to complete the WOD. 327 reps total and 299th in the world!

76 - The number of people we have registered for the Open, huge! The last 2 years we've had the most in WA.

Things Gary Heard:

• "If we can't go to Japan sometime early March I'm not going" - Liam is doing everything he can to ensure he doesn't do the Open. Though leaving the country feels a little dramatic.

• "Golden Shower or something" - Ryan D. Everyone preps for The Open differently. No judgement this is simply an information exchange. (Damn hell of a photo though!)

• Jason commented that when judging to be aware of height. Ervin needed clarification, "Squat depth or Wall Ball height?" Throw that ball as high as you like mate...

• "My plan is to go unbroken" - Lauren Walker

• "20 reps in, I got dizzy" - Lauren Walker

• "I didn't even go close to crying!" Emily 'Ice-Queen' Cairns

• "Have you considered wearing lifters?" Tobey, after seeing Laura's Wall Balls.

• "Cooper cost himself a bit of time by letting the ball drop instead of catching it right away" - Emily really digging into the seconds on Cooper's performance.

• "My strategy for this workout is not throwing up" - coming off hot from a week of drinking in New Zealand and form from 25.1 last year, Shauny B was mission accomplished.

• "Did anyone else like the repeat did a Uno Reverse on their quads?" - Nikki after some recovery 180 odd wall balls.

Notable Performances:

• Nikki sent in 3 smack-talk videos about Nate, instead of the requested 1. Obviously, a few things needed to be gotten off the chest!

• Lauren 'girl's girl' Walker telling Josh, Nate and others to stop abusing (they said they were "encouraging") Jess Hayes in the final seconds of the workout.

• The CFC account received some fallacious intel on Friday evening, and while it may have appeared as such, unlike 'Penisgate' at the winter Olympics, I can confirm it's all natural, and there's been no inserting or injecting.

  
  

• Ervin after his Friday effort, was confused and thought someone else submitted his workout. Turns out there is another Ervin Ng in Singapore and they only had one rep difference! Forget about John Smith, Ervin Ng is now your standard name.

• The numerology didn't stop there. On Ervin's redo got the same score AND tie break as Jason!

• Georgia D came in late on Monday hustling from work. She went in a heat solo and proceeded to smash her previous score and get the second best score in the gym!

Week 1 results:

5th - Blue: 2783 reps

4th - Purple: 2836 reps

3rd - Red: 2855 reps

2nd - Gold: 2884 reps

1st - Green: 2967 reps

As you were folks. Green do the business and take the chocolates. While there is some turmoil in the world right now, at least there are some things you can rely on.

Don't forget to lock in the evening for our awards presentation and after party.

Date: Saturday 21st of March

Location; Claremont Hotel

Time: 5pm