With Willy Georges and Alec Smith out of the competition, the CrossFit Strength in Depth Sanctional was even more wide open. Hungary’s Kristof Horvath (and Laura Horvath’s brother) led after the first two events, but Event 3 and 4 brought the heavy barbells.
Event 3 was a 1RM Snatch event and Event 4 followed up just a minute later with a 30-calorie Assault Bike and 30 clean and jerks. Horvath struggled on the snatch with only 117.5kg, good for 18th. This opened the door for the athletes chasing Horvath.
Bronislaw Olenkowicz took advantage. With a 140kg snatch…that’s 308 pounds…Olenkowicz took the event win and 100 points. A minute later, Olenkowicz strategically paced the Assault Bike finishing behind the rest of the final heat. But by cycling the 135-pound barbell with touch-and-go reps, Olenkowicz blitzed past the other athletes doing fast singles.
With back-to-back event wins, Olenkowicz stormed into 1st place at the end of Day 1. He leads by 26 points over Drew Wayman and 42 points ahead of David Shorunke. Sunday includes three more events before crowning the top athlete with a ticket to the 2019 CrossFit Games.
Standings after Day 1:
1) Bronislaw Olenkowicz (326)
2) Drew Wayman (300)
3) David Shorunke (284)
4) Zack George (278)
5) Roman Khrennikov (276)
