THE RAINHILL TRIALS, MANCHESTER
CrossFit All Out Coach Chris Knight took part in the Rainhill Trials competition in May. The no-qualifier event is open to all, via a ballot where keen CrossFitters register and are chosen at random. The 320 athletes were given a series of WODs (workouts), allowing them to be ranked with similar level athletes in one of four subsidiary competitions, from ‘elite’ to ‘beginner’. Chris qualified 29th out of 40 in his ‘advanced’ category. Chris and some of his supporters then travelled to the competition in Manchester where he qualified top 10, which got him through to the Finals and finished 4th overall, just missing out on a podium finish. Chris fully embraced the experience and said “this was my first competition as an individual and I loved it. It was such a brilliant experience performing in front of the crowd at SportCity, especially with the support from the CFAO travelling party!”

IN-HOUSE THROWDOWN
Saturday 11th June saw 34 members take part in the in-house throwdown, with 2 categories in the male/ female divide. It was a great day with lots of support from other members, with special thanks to Nathan Abbott for organising the event, Darren Slade for music, Jess Hughes for photography and Coaches Joe Allinson, Kelly Keers and Chris Knight for all their help. Some of the more advanced Academy members (aged 11-16) took part in a fun team WOD against their Coaches…and were pretty smug after winning by a mile! Everyone who took part in the competition gave it their all and it was a really positive experience for everyone involved. The very deserving winners each taking home a trophy, were: RX1 male: David Heslington 1st, Tom Johnson 2nd, Matthew Taylor 3rd RX1 female: Claire Dale 1st, Emma Anderson 2nd, Vicki Finn Smith 3rd RX2 male: Alex Armstrong 1st, Josh Burlison 2nd, Dave Cooke 3rd RX2 female: Rebecca Topping 1st, Michelle Hogan 2nd, Jules Baxter 3rd

SCALE THE HEIGHTS, LEEDS
Colin Wooster took part in the Scale the Heights competition in Leeds on Saturday 17th June, taking 2nd place in WODs 1 and 3, 6th place in WOD 2 and finishing 3rd overall. Colin said “Scale the Heights always put on a great show and it is great to be part of. My best moment was winning the 2nd workout in my heat. It keeps me striving to work harder. I’d like to thank everyone who supported me.”

THE GLACIER GAMES, GATESHEAD
Colin travelled back from Leeds ready to compete the following day with 3 team mates, Chris Knight, Becki Hogarth and Claire Dale at the Glacier Games in Gateshead Stadium alongside 49 other teams. The team worked together smoothly and efficiently, making the most of the sunshine and having a fun day. Claire said “It was just such a great day, thankfully the weather was perfect and we are really proud to have finished 4th place in the first workout and 27th overall. It’s our first team competition and we all really enjoyed it, now looking forward to next year!” Becki added “we weren’t even expecting to qualify, so to qualify 35th and finish 27th was brilliant. I knew I wasn’t one of the strongest but to take part in the competition showed me that CrossFit really is constantly varied and everyone has strengths and weaknesses, so in a team that all counts and we had an awesome team.” Chris Knight gained an improved clean & jerk of 110kg at the competition, an 8kg increase on his previous best!

POUND FOR POUND, NORTHAMPTON
CrossFit All Out owner and Head Coach Terry Anderson competed Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th June. The competition is based on personal body weight so is designed to be a more fair playing field for all athletes. Terry finished 27th after the 4 WODs, which he was happy with. “I was happy just to qualify as it’s a really tough competition to enter and really helps puts things into perspective a bit more, looking at my strength compared to my bodyweight in comparison to other competitors. There were some really amazing athletes there who I was proud to be competing alongside in quite a unique competition.”

CrossFit All Out are always keen to welcome new members, encouraging anyone who enjoys general strength and fitness training and might consider taking that to a competitive level within CrossFit “the Sport of fitness”, to get in touch. More information can be found on their website www. crossfitallout.co.uk

7 - POUND FOR POUND

6 - GLACIER GAMES

4 THROWDOWN

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2 THROWDOWN

1 RAINHILL (003)