Men's First Cut—2019 CrossFit Games

if i can quote the great samuel l jackson from jurassic park hold on to your butt because we got four rounds four in a meter run three legless rope climbs and seven squat snatches at 185 for the men and just looking at this on paper i think this is a perfect event to start with and a shout out to james newberry setting the new time to beat at 16 19. [Music] we are underway final heat of first cut and you know what they say sean the first cup is usually the deepest and i think that is true in this case today and a lot of these athletes who are out here in this final heat quite a few of them have games experience a lot of them were fixtures at the regional level as well so we expect to see more men in this heat finish this event again so far only 14. ben smith in the first heat was the only guy to do it 13 men finished it in heat number two none did it faster than james newberry who has the time to beat 16 minutes 21.19 seconds i think ben smith just seven seconds behind him all the way from heat one and sean is saying 14 finished let's put that in perspective out of a hundred people who have already taken the field right only 14 people have finished so i think that this is kind of lending to the idea is that on paper this really doesn't look that bad when you look at the numbers of 40 meter run four rounds three rope climbs seven cent this is a devastating event and i love having their perspective out there of seeing you know 86 athletes not able to complete in the time cap showing you how difficult this really is well and it reminds me of some of the open workouts where there's a good chunk of people that can do the work but then there's a small chunk of people that can do the work really fast and really well and that's what we're seeing here just about all the athletes are back inside the stadium after their initial 400 meter run and now it is on to those three legless rope climbs before seven squat snatches at 185 pounds jason smith was the first guy back in but he had the furthest distance to travel as he had to go all the way back down the field you have to go back to your name plate once you get back inside the stadium there's matt frazier is the toughest round to kind of approach because having very little time to practice this you have some semblance of how long a round might take especially when you have ben smith leading the charge in heat one being able to see that but managing your work in the first three because you have cut swimming over your head you're in a heat of the 50 fittest individuals in the entire world everybody's starting out hot everybody's starting out fast managing that first round is going to be the most important part of this event here's the thing you finish this event you're moving on that's pretty guaranteed at this point matt fraser was one of the first men under the barbell working on his first set of seven squad snatches sean sweeney who is in the background he's wearing the white hat he was second pat bellner is there he's in front of sweeney he's towards the top of your screen and then cole sager is on the upper left-hand part he's wearing that green shirt but matt fraser just continuing to do what he does work away methodically on this barbell as he looks to put the finishing touches on round one and he is done he will move his chest piece and head back out for his second 400 meter run pat beller and sean sweeney top your screen they are done as well the thing that these athletes need to know and understand in terms of what this event is going to dictate is being methodical as you just said but being near perfect technique-wise there is no room for sloppiness in this event because of the rope climbs themselves three back to back at that height legless is going to blow up your grip it's going to blow up your shoulders and if you have any type of mechanical flaw on the snatch it's going to get exposed later down the road well both of those those movements are movements where one missed rep is not just an a you know a missed rep like a total bar we're talking about a lot of effort that goes into especially a legless rope climb that's a lot of energy lost if you miss a rep on the legless rope climb and even a heavy snatch sean sweeney in the lead here on this second 400 meter run but not by much pat feldner right behind him and matt fraser has made up some ground there are your top three at this point now fraser looking like he's moving ahead of pat velner for second place as they put the finishing touches on their second of four 400 meter runs the rest of the field getting back out there travis mayer is one of them yonakowski also in this heat chandler smith is in the background he sits in fourth place jason smith is behind him but these are your top three from left to right matt fraser sean sweeney and pat miller i think you can't see just by looking on camera is what it feels like to be out there i was out there earlier there's no clouds out here and it's madison and it's cool but that sun gets hot and it gets hot very quick when you think about running to those mats with the black tarp running out to the competition floor where it's field turf where it just sucks in heat from the sun that heat factor almost becomes disorienting as the event goes on matt fraser first back to the rope for the second of four times he has three legless rope climbs to complete pat bellner there as well and sean sweeney they are your top three in this third and final heat of first cut the opening event of the 2019 reebok crossing games for the individuals usually you see sean sweeney competing in a cowboy hat and he's going with the backwards baseball cap i think rigbach has started making those yet so i'm getting to see the games this year once they make the uh the reebok nano 10 gallon he'll have that thing uh pat velder is done with his second round of road climbs and he will move on to the barbell velvet fraser and sweeney still your top three fraser to work first on his second set of seven 185 pound squat snatches and this is where efficiency in the movement is so vital to the success of this particular event something like a snatch in itself is the most technically demanding lift that we have in crossfit and weightlifting now throw that into a full depth squat even more challenging put 185 pounds on the bar we're just adding to the difficulty of this so if you don't have the technique and if you don't have the efficiency this becomes the actually the biggest challenge for a lot of these athletes who don't have that fraser tears through those seven he's through two of four rounds and now he starts round three with that 400 meter run out and around the stadium here at the alliant energy center in the crowd coming to its feet as frazier sheds the shirt and he is all by himself but pat benson he's just finished up his snatches i think he's he frazier has a little bit of a lead on him but he's holding tight to matt's back right now the two men we expected to be fighting for the top of the podium fighting for the top spot here in this third and final heat of the opening event fraser out first pat felder right behind him when you're talking about a four-round event there's always that round or that rep scheme that is the the difference maker you think about the 215 nine it's the 15. when you're talking about a four rounder it's the third round it's kind of that no man's land i call it the tuesday of the week right i just finished monday wednesday's hum day who cares about tuesday right and that third round is so vital in terms of staying focused and not looking ahead understanding of what you just did is not necessarily going to double in either terms of i feel good or i feel bad so that third round is really going to be where they can ingrain what it is they're trying to achieve within this event in terms of pacing and tempo james newberry has the time to beat did that in the second of these three heat 16 minutes 21.19 seconds and matt fraser is well ahead of that pace and looking to win his 10th career event at the crossfit games fraser in his career has never finished lower than second overall now sean sweeney is on his run he has fallen well back of fraser and velner your leaders here as they finish up their third of four 400 meter runs velar took a apartment fraser took a quick look over his right shoulder to see where velder was fraser back in first and feldner right behind him and you could see on sean sweeney kind of the tuesday that you were talking about setting in there chase he looked a lot more labored on that third run than he did on the second one um so it'll be interesting to see if he can hold close to velner and fraser on this round matt fraser now starting to lap some people in this third heat here comes chandler smith he qualified due to his finish at the rogue invitational in may making his first appearance at the crossfit games john sweeney was in the background he's coming back in so he has fallen off the lead pace as matt fraser gets to work on his third set of three legless rope climbs bellner trying to keep pace he was in second place behind fraser as they started this third round four total rounds in this event 20 minute time cap it's starting to see the laboring on those that that third climb is that magic numbers like you can do one you can fake two but get into that third one after three you know that's number nine you still got three more after this that's the crazy part of i think a lot of these athletes maybe got shocked after that second round based off what those legless stroke claims felt like just saw the time to be that belongs to james newberry as matt fraser gets to work on his third of four sets of squat snatches at 185 pounds seven reps to complete chandler smith back on the rope for his third round of lego stroke climbs great little kip to touch on that one that was a a really well timed you know where he finished that last strict pull and then went for that kip to touch the road rig there now vilner's starting to struggle with 185 he's going to fight that and that's a no rep for pat bellner for the first time and that's the crazy thing about snatch is that that's certain weight because you know you can fake it clean you can have a low elbow catch you can maybe not get your wrists in the right position you can't do that with a snatch especially at this weight all right i think it's that perfect weight that allows people to push the pace but can hurt them if they push it too fast too soon matt fraser is taking advantage and he is done with three rounds and you could see him taking a look at where velner was and fraser is now going to open up even more of a lead on bellner as he starts his fourth and final round bellar oh fails another second one [Music] wholesaler meanwhile left your screen he's on his third round this was the nervousness that i saw from the athletes who understood what this event was actually going to be like because when you throw something in like high volume legless rope clowns it's not even necessarily a fitness issue it's a grip issue and when that grip goes you can be the strongest fittest most conditioned athlete in the entire world it ain't coming back yeah it doesn't look like matt fraser's gonna be coming back to the field because he is running away with this event now chandler smith and bartek lipka leaving the stadium i believe lipka is starting his third round see chandler smith is now in second place and here comes pat beller who is able to make up some ground so he's got to reel in chandler smith now the good news for anybody who finishes inside the top 10 here is that there's only a two-point differential between those spots so if velder were to finish third and fraser were to win he's only four points back so that's just that's fine at this point and let's talk about kind of vilner's day one event one you know history history getting a 30th place i'm not saying is going to finish there but maybe back it off a little bit because we don't want to fall down any more than we already are getting a 30 30th place finish in this event is not as detrimental as it was in years past in terms of the point system absolutely not yeah that's a good point 45 points you finished 30th so you're still in there it's a lot of points upper graph later on and we've got a long way to go make a good i mean you don't want to push yourself beyond the point of recovery in an event like this where you really just need to get up in the top 75 and can do a little damage control i'm not sure how vilner feels coming in this fourth round but what we saw at the end of the third what he has left to do i hope there's not an onset of panic that may disrupt the tempo he should probably just back off the throttle just a little bit it's event one right he's right where he needs to be no no reason to panic for pat feldner right now as matt fraser is back into the stadium for the fourth and final time and he will get set to get to work on his third and final set of three legless road climbs as chandler smith now sits in second place and chandler smith and pat fellner back inside the stadium so belter looks like he was able to make up some ground on that 400 meter run dylan's actually had some very good runs each and every round he's been able to make up a lot of ground razor with two to go one legless rope climb left for matt fraser before seven final squat snatches at 185 pounds and then that sprint across the finish line time to beat belongs to james newberry 16 minutes 21.19 seconds looks like fraser's gonna track that down just saw chandler smith complete his first legless road climb in this fourth and final round only 14 men so far have completed all this work inside the 20-minute time cap what has been so impressive to me on matt fraser and we'll see if we can hold it on this last round but he snatches he drops the barbell and a lot of these gentlemen are stepping back and then stepping to the barbell he stays with his shins right against that barbell puts his hands on it grabs it and goes again and now fraser back to the barbell for the final time seven reps between matt fraser and his tenth career event win at the crossfit games pat feller meanwhile trying to overtake chandler smith for second place in this heat is done and he's going to be making his way to the barbell behind matt fraser and chandler smith has done as well [Music] have to run all the way to the other end of the field to get to work meanwhile fraser continues to put the finishing touches on his events i love the heat that chandler smith is putting on pat bellner right now he's two reps in and i don't know that pat has yet lifted that barbell once different year different format different event same result matt fraser wins event number one in dominant fashion now the battle for second between pat felder on the left chandler smith on the right [Music] you know the biggest problem we saw with chandler smith in his early years competing is his confidence in himself and his ability to compete with the best in the field starting off an event one like this on the biggest stage of his life in terms of crossfit career he's going to speak volumes for the weekend and there he goes chandler smith will take second place in the event that will be good for 98 points third place still up for grabs as james newberry's top time of 16 21.19 seconds is now your third best and bellner has time to get in inside of that if he finishes third he earns 96 points so only four back at math razor now another no rep for pat bellner here [Applause] less than four minutes to go before we hit the 20-minute time cap and more men are making their way to the other side of the field now to start their third and fourth rounds of this event so velner with a successful rep right there he won't finish third and he is in we had it looks like some other athletes come across the finish line while we were watching velvet scott panchy came in goomanson adler so a handful of men getting in ahead of pat beller will have to wait for the final results to see just exactly how many [Music] but so far 10 men in this heat have finished velner right now would take ninth in the event that's good for 84 points so 16 back of matt frazier sean sweeney is now on the barbell for the final time but here are the men who have finished so far in this heat fraser smith scott patrick jordan guppinson adler kohlsager velner hornier jason smith travis mayer hefner samuel plant noah olsen jason carroll logan collins they're all across the finish line so many of the names that we have seen competing in the past are through this event and they will be moving on as once again we're cutting the field down to 75 athletes after this test but there's still a good amount of time till the time cap we have two and a half minutes so there's a good chance that almost all if not all of these gentlemen can finish this event sean sweeney will come across the finish line 18th in this heat 20 seconds in the event that's 58 points and that's the thing and you know it's how funny is it where it's like oh i hope vilner's okay you'll be fine you'll be fine it's like that's how good matt fraser is right is that you just made everyone look like something was wrong with them of how much you were dominating this heat still a top 10 finisher pat miller and given how he started competitions in the past that's a huge win for him huge win and here we're you know out i success something's wrong poor pat i was like oh you got top ten you're good you're okay yeah nothing's wrong with pat bell because everything is right with matt fraser it is one of his best starts but again notoriously the crossfit games have started with a water event which pat bellner does not do well at so hopefully as we stated earlier a water event doesn't come up later in the crossfit games sayonakowski and lucas eschlinger they also finish as well actually they're taking 31st basically if you get across the finish line here inside the 20 minute time cap you are going to move on more men coming across the finish line as you take a look at lucas hogberg the man who finished third place overall last year his best career finished at the crossfit games was never lower than third overall that entire time in 2018 he had a heck of a competition here in madison last year but it's not going to start off there after this event is hogberg will take 39th in the event but still very much alive as that is willie george a national champion from france is across alex vigno just came across as he always is is backing on the field trying to get the crowd behind me like eric carmody who's still on the field trying to get as many reps as he can as we approach the 20-minute time cap and that will do it [Music] for the tenth time in his career matt fraser wins an event 15 minutes 7.70 seconds so we know how incredible of an athlete you are and how capable you are but you came out here with nearly 150 other guys and you knew that cuts were coming so how concerned were you about this new format uh you know i was comfortable thinking you know if everything if i don't get injured i'll be fine make it on the next round but just want to start collecting points as early as i can you're definitely on your way now you were able to qualify for the games at the very first opportunity back in dubai last december so that's extended your training season how did that prepare you hi you know my training season before were i i liked them so i tried to keep it as close out as i could so i competed at rogue still did the open just kept things the same it's great to see you back out here congratulations thank you

Channel: CrossFit Games

Views: 52,451

Rating: 4.9214287 out of 5

Keywords: Functional Fitness, Fitness, Functional, CrossFit, The CrossFit Games, The Sport of Fitness, Forging Elite Fitness, 2019 crossfit games first cut, crossfit games 2019 mens first cut, fitness motivation, fitness motivation men, crossfit games workout 2019, crossfit games workouts, chandler smith crossfit, mathew fraser crossfit games 2019

Id: Qk9_QWl2UWY

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020