In a couple of recent articles here, we discussed the Crossfit sport and the Crossfit games. In closing the most recent article on the games, it was mentioned that we have one of the game’s best competitors right here in our midst, Mrs. Tanya Wagner.
Tanya placed 2nd overall in the 2008 games and 1st in 2009. This qualifies Tanya for the title of "America's Fittest Woman of 2009"
Here is a brief excerpt from the Crossfit games website on 2009’s games;
The 2009 Games took place July 10-12th, with eight events:
Saturday
• Event 1: 7km Hill Run
• Event 2: Deadlift one rep every 30 sec moving from 315lbs to 505lbs in 10lb increments (women went from 185lbs to 375lbs)
• Event 3: 170m Hill Sprint with two 35lb sandbags (women used a single sandbag)
• Event 4: Row 500m, pound a 4' stake into the ground, Row 500m (women used a 3' stake)
• Event 5: Couplet, which was 3 Rounds for time of 30 Wallball / 30 75lb Squat Snatch (women used 14lb medicine ball and a 45lb barbell)
Sunday
• Event 6: Max load Barbell Snatch
• Event 7: Triplet, which was max rounds in 8min of 4 Handstand Pushups / 8 32kg KB Swings / 12 GHD Situps (women used a 24kg KB)
• Event 8: Chipper, which was 15 barbells cleans (155/100lbs), 30 toes to bar, 30 box jumps (24/20"), 15/10 muscle-ups, 30 push presses (40/25lbs), 30 double-unders, 15 thrusters (135/95lbs), 30 pull-ups, 30 burpees, 300' overhead walking lunges (45/25lb plate)
Approximately 74 men and 72 women began the first event. All had qualified to enter by one of several means: winning any prior year's Games, being one of the top five finishers from 2008, or by placing high enough in one of the 19 qualifying events in the spring of 2009. Scoring was based on relative finish, so the fewer points the better. The bottom ten athletes (those with the most points) were eliminated from the competition after both the second and fourth events. Only the top 16 men and women (each) continued on to Sunday's events.
The team Affiliate Cup was held on Friday, July 10th and Sunday July 12th. It was exclusively team workouts, and open to all teams who registered in time (no qualifying required). In the end, 96 teams competed. Each event required two men and two women to compete, but they could select those four from up to six athletes on the team.
Mikko Salo from Finland won the men's competition, while Tanya Wagner from CrossFit Apex in Souderton, Pennsylvania took the women's crown. Northwest CrossFit won the Affiliate Cup. For the 2009 CrossFit Games website, which documented the event thoroughly, click here.
Considering the fitness level of all the athletes competing in these games, to come out on top is really quite an awesome accomplishment. Tanya was kind enough to share the following background info for our readers about how she got started in Crossfit and what’s happening lately with Apex Crossfit;
My husband Josh and I were both collegiate athletes who after college continued to workout in a traditional gym. In the fall of 2007, we stumbled onto Crossfit after a friend of ours found the "Spartan 300" workout and gave it to us to try. Josh and I worked out to get stronger so we could complete the workout. Josh shared the Spartan workout with some of his firends at the school where he was working and they kept coming across this CrossFit website as they searched for more workouts like the Spartan.
The more we learned about CrossFit and got involved with following the workout of the day as well as creating our own workouts, we soon became addicted to this new way of working out. There was no way to explain how you felt after giving all your effort for about 20 minutes and being more tired than we ever were when we'd spend 2 hours at the gym. After only a few short months we all began to see huge physical changes with muscle gains and fat loss. We couldn't believe how short the workouts were and how fast our bodies were changing, especially since we were already in decent condition (or so we thought.)
We decided to become affiliates and teach what we found to others. Josh and I are both Phys Ed teachers ,and our other 2 owners, Keith Bussom and Mike Feliciani are also both teachers. Keith teaches middle school Social Studies and Mike teaches High School Computer Technology. By the spring of 2008 we became CrossFit Certified and started running Free Saturday workouts in a local park. As word spread and people started coming to us more consistently we offered more classes and had to find indoor locations for the cold months. We were at a gymnastics facility in Hatfield for short time and then we ran classes out of our home garage for a summer as well. Our current location is downtown Souderton on Broad St. at the intersection of Broad and 113. We are in the process of finalizing our next location (bigger) and hope to move there in the fall.
To see pictures and clips from the 2009 games, see this page at Apex Crossfit’s site:
http://www.crossfitapex.com/2008/02/2-12-08-tabata-something-else.html
Watch this highlight clip:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/2009CrossFitGames_Individualday2Sweet16.mov
Thanks for your time,Tanya and congratulations on your wins. We will follow up with you in the near future. Best wishes for you and the Apex club.
Comments