Looks like one of our very own members, Apollonia Helm, who in addition to being a Touchstone member, is an absolutely amazing athlete, performed extremely well at the 2009 NorCal Qualifier for the 2009 CrossFit Games and as such, will be advancing!

The 2009 CrossFit Games will take place July 10th through 12th. We were lucky enough to get some inside information on what all went down. Check it out:

The official results are in and Apollonia Helm will be representing CrossFit East Bay at the 2009 CrossFit Games on July 10th to 12th (She came in fifth). Local athlete Candace Hamilton of CrossFit Oakland will be representing CFO (she came in second).

Coming in to day two, Polly was in a three-way tie for third place. 16 women RXd the day one WODs (out of a possible 20 slots) and were able to advance to day two.

The day two WOD was the following:

22 deadlifts @ 315#/185#
Farmers walk with 45#/25# dumbbells to top of inner loop (hill)
22 thrusters with 45#/25# dumbbells
Farmers walk with 45#/25# dumbbells to bottom of inner loop (hill)
Run to pull-up bar and do 22 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Run to top of outer loop (hill)
22 overhead squats @ 95#/65#
Run to bottom of inner loop (hill)

The hill in question was extremely steep to say the least. Not one competitor managed to run the whole thing*.

Polly finished in a solid 17:42 for fifth place and a spot in the 2009 CrossFit Games. Only 150 athletes worldwide were able to qualify out of a field of thousands. To put in perspective, there were 200 competitors at the NorCal Qualifier and only 10 slots for the games available.

Polly's superb skills as a generalist and the specific training she did coming up to the qualifier served her well here and she finished strong. Her main complaint about the WODs, in fact, was that she did not go hard enough and was still able to stand up at the end. We will have to work on that going forward. Thanks again to Gita who designed the ramp-up training for Polly with a bit of input here and there.

GO POLLY!

* Gita tried out the WOD post-qualifier for fun and was one of only two people to run the entire steep section bottom to top with no breaks. The other was Aaron MacIntire of CrossFit Oakland.

Congratulations and best of luck in July!

Labels: CrossFit, CrossFit Championships, Featured Members, Touchstone Members

Here's a bit more about all this:

"CrossFit East Bay will be fielding a team for the "Affiliate Cup" comp at the Games in July.

CrossFit East Bay will be having tryouts and/or competitions within our affiliate to determine the make-up of our team.

Training for the Affiliate Cup Tryouts will begin on Sunday May 9th. There will be a MANDATORY meeting on that day, 1PM, for those interested in tryouts: if for some reason, you truly cannot make it, schedule a separate meeting with me please.

While Gita and I are working out the details, it is likely that we will mirror the affiliate cup format by having two WODs per day, one at 1PM and one at 6PM (programming by Gita), with at least some of these held at off-site locations. There will be 14 WODs followed by a qualifier one week before the games (July 5th, date subject to change). You must attend 10 of 14 WODs to participate in the qualifier."

If you're into it, and feeling fit enough, check it out and look into getting involved. You will be pushed to your limits!

Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, CrossFit, CrossFit Championships