Uldis Upenieks is less than a month away from competing at the CrossFit Games for the third time. But this past weekend, Upenieks hit the competition floor at the Malta Throwdown 2023 and ended the weekend on top of the podium.
Upenieks qualified for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games last month after finishing 6th at the European Semifinal the first weekend in June. The Games veteran from Latvia has been the fittest in his country the past seven seasons.
The Malta Throwdown 2023 took place over three days, June 7-9, and featured several individual divisions including Rx and a team division. There were six events, but seven scored workouts thanks to a two-part workout on Friday.
Of the seven scored events, Upenieks had five event wins, a second place and a third place for 685 points. He was followed by Antonios Makaronas (GRE) in 2nd and Sam Whitworth (UK) in 3rd.
Upenieks was the only Games athlete in the field at the Malta Throwdown, but he is not the only athlete to have competed between Semifinals and the Games. Last month Karin Freyova won the French Throwdown.
As for the Women’s Rx division, Semifinals athlete Julia Błażejowska walked away on top of the podium. She was joined on the podium by Santa Ozolina in 2nd and Fedra Szakolczai in 3rd.
Both Upenieks and Błażejowska earned €1,250 for winning the competition.
Full leaderboard can be found here.
Malta is located in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily.
