SiD 2020

London, our beautiful capital, hosted the 2020 Strength in Depth UK event on January 24th, 25th, and 26th. This is the United Kingdom’s only Sanctional on the schedule so for several European athletes, this was their best chance to qualify for Madison later this summer. And boy, did they put on a mighty show!

The three day event, which included three main fields with qualifying positions available for the highest finisher not already qualified, showcased some of the best athletes in the world, including reigning and defending four-time CrossFit Games Champion Mat Fraser and second place podium winner from 2018 Laura Horvath. For the teams, CrossFit Mayhem Freedom led by the other four-time Fittest Man on Earth Rich Froning were always favourites to bag the top spot.

The highlights?

  • Helena Collins and Team Whey’d taking top spot for the 6000m sandbag run on Friday, coming in a whole 90s before the second place team. With her team mates Emma Mcquaid, Arminas Balevicius and Michael Smith, they bagged a cool second place for the event overall just after CrossFit Mayhem Freedom.

  • Laura Horvath’s impressive performance throughout each and every event. With a hatrick of consecutive first places from events 3, 4 & 5 it looked like she was gunning for the top spot going into Sunday, and she did just that following a second place in Event 6 and then a further top spot in the short but exhilarating final event on Sunday evening, just pipping Kelsie Kiel for 1st place. She was humble, worked extremely hard and seemed to have more confidence and focus than I’ve seen from her in previous competitions. She’s got her eyes on the prize this year for sure.

  • The electrifying atmosphere during every single event. Sure you could feel it when Mat Fraser took centre stage, the excitement was palatable, but the spectators were invested in seeing all the athletes doing. well. Special moments included watching Zack George desperate to finish WOD 6 - Tin Trail - within the 15 minute time cap with the audience wildly cheering him on and the crowd willing David Shorunke to finish WOD 7 - 21-15-9 - under the 2 minute mark, which he did at a speedy 01:57.

My takeaway? These guys are athletes and they are incredibly inspiring. I was with the best bunch of CrossFit fans over the weekend who all received fantastic treatment from their idols when asking for photographs, showing how humble these guys are as well as being hardworking and talented in their field. We were blessed to have such a well organised sanctional on our doorstep in London, and it was such a pleasure to be a part of it!

https://strengthindepth.com

Catch up on the weekend with their live stream footage!

Tace Traviss