Saturday’s first event at the 2024 CrossFit Games in Fort Worth, TX, started with an even smaller roster than Friday, as Elisa Fuliano and Moritz Fiebig added themselves to the list of athletes to withdraw, saying they just can’t compete after Lazar Đukić’s death on Thursday.

This left 35 women and 32 men performing the hero workout “Chad” — named in honor of Navy SEAL Chad Wilkinson, who took his life on October 29, 2018 — in one big heat at Dickies Arena. 

Everyone was chasing the current leaders Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and James Sprague.

Individual Event 5: Chad

For time:

1,000 step-ups (35/45 lb)

*Completed as 250 trips

Final Results

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Recap

Women’s Division

With 35 women all moving at a similar pace, it took a while for anyone to pull away from the field. By the 23-minute mark, though, it was Canada’s Emily Rolfe and Poland’s Gabi Migala leading the way.

At 28 minutes, Migala and Rolfe were still leading the pack, with Haley Adams, who entered the day in second overall, right behind.

Migala, Rolfe, and Adams held their positions until the end, with Rolfe edging Migala out by 14 seconds and earning the fourth event win of her career.

Adams finished 31 seconds after that and settled in third place. 

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The event win helped Rolfe pass Adams on the overall leaderboard. She sits in second overall, behind only Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr. Adams dropped to third but is just six points behind Rolfe.

Meanwhile, thanks to her fourth-place finish, the rookie from the UK, Aimee Cringle, who has had an incredible competition so far, continued to solidify her position in the top 10. She sits in sixth.

Worth noting: Heavy podium contender Emma Lawson sat lower than expected in 14th after Friday and needed a big performance to move into the top 10. But she wasn’t able to put it together, finishing 26th in the event. She sits in 17th overall.

Men’s Division

Similar to the women, the men moved together at a similar speed for the first half of the event. 

By the 22-minute mark, rookie Austin Hatfield led the way thanks to his fast descents, where he let gravity help him drop off the boxes, rather than the slower step-down approach the other athletes were taking. 

Thirty-one minutes in, Hatfield still led the men, with overall winner James Sprague behind him in second. Pat Vellner, who entered the day in seventh overall, was in third.

Towards the end of the event, though, Sprague picked up his pace, closing the gap with Hatfield, ultimately doing just enough to edge him out by 11 seconds. Sprague was the first athlete, male or female, to finish “Chad.”

The next two men to finish, Khrennikov in third and Vellner in fourth, were more than two minutes behind both Sprague and Hatfield. 

These finishes helped Khrennikov stay in second overall, and let Vellner continue his climb up the overall leaderboard. He now sits in fourth overall, just 20 points away from the podium.

Fikowski, too, put up another consistent performance, finishing sixth in the event, keeping him in the top three overall with two events to go on Saturday. 

Worth noting: Podium contender Ricky Garard — who finished Friday with an event win and was sixth overall heading into “Chad” — was visibly struggling by the 33-minute mark. His steps looked labored and slow, and his legs almost appeared to buckle as he stepped down from each box. He managed to pull it together and finished 17th in the damage control event for him.

Further, two-time Games champion Justin Medeiros came into the day in 17th. He finished 12th, helping him move up a few spots on the leaderboard into 13th, as he inches his way closer to the top 10.

Up Next 

Saturday’s next event, Individual Event 6: Clean Ladder, kicks off at 12:55 pm CT.

The event consists of three rounds, and athletes will perform progressively heavier cleans on a descending rep scheme each round. 

As originally programmed, all athletes would compete in the first round, with the top 20 advancing to the second round, and the top 10 to the final round, where the heaviest barbell will be 365 pounds for the men and 250 pounds for the women. Any changes to this format were unknown at the time of publication.

2024 CrossFit Games Event Recaps

Event 4 “Track and Field” Results: Dominance From Down Under

Event 3 “Firestorm” Results: Fast Fitness and a Friendly Rivalry

Event 2 “Midline Climb” Results: Restrained and Respectful, Athletes Return to the Competition

Credit: Susana Rodriguez, @ideyafilms_ / Instagram

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