A week after Sasha Nievas was dealing with controversy over her 23.2 video submission, the CrossFit Games veteran from Argentina came out on 23.3 and put the hammer down. Nievas blazed through the shoulder-heavy triplet on her way to a 7:45 time, which is currently the fastest legitimate score on the women’s leaderboard (as of Monday morning).
After watching Mal O’Brien during the live announcement, we wanted to see how someone could go faster than the 2nd Fittest Woman on Earth. So we broke the time times of each segment to see where Sasha pulled away from Mal.
Take a look…
| Total Time (Segment Time) | Nievas | O’Brien |
| Rd 1 Wall Walks | 0:22 (0:22) | 0:27 (0:27) |
| Rd 1 Double Unders | 0:54 (0:32) | 0:57 (0:30) |
| Rd 1 Snatches (15 @ 65 lbs) | 1:24 (0:30) | 1:27 (0:30) |
| Rd 2 Wall Walks | 1:52 (0:28) | 2:03 (0:36) |
| Rd 2 Double Unders | 2:27 (0:35) | 2:33 (0:30) |
| Rd 2 Snatches (12 @ 95 lbs) | 3:14 (0:47) | 3:13 (0:40) |
| Rd 3 HSPU | 3:57 (0:43) | 4:05 (0:52) |
| Rd 3 Double Unders | 4:30 (0:33) | 4:36 (0:31) |
| Rd 3 Snatches (9 @ 125 lbs) | 5:27 (0:57) | 5:24 (0:48) |
| Rd 4 HSPU | 6:23 (0:56) | 6:31 (1:07) |
| Rd 4 Double Unders | 6:54 (0:31) | 7:02 (0:31) |
| Rd 4 Snatches (6 @ 155) | 7:45 (0:51) | 7:56 (0:54) |
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The tables below show that Sasha was faster on the wall walks and handstand push-ups. However, during the live announcement, O’Brien received two no reps on her wall walks costing her 11 seconds between the two. Those 11 seconds are the exact time difference between her and Sasha.
But the two athletes got to nearly the same time in different ways…
| Sasha Nievas | |||||
| Â | Total Time | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 |
| Wall Walks | 0:50 | 0:22 | 0:28 | Â | Â |
| HSPU | 1:39 | Â | Â | 0:43 | 0:56 |
| DU | 2:11 | 0:32 | 0:35 | 0:33 | 0:31 |
| Snatches | 3:05 | 0:30 | 0:47 | 0:57 | 0:51 |
| Total | 7:45 | Â | Â | Â | Â |
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| Mal O’Brien | |||||
| Â | Total Time | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 |
| Wall Walks | 1:03 | 0:27 | 0:36 | Â | Â |
| HSPU | 1:59 | Â | Â | 0:52 | 1:07 |
| DU | 2:02 | 0:30 | 0:30 | 0:31 | 0:31 |
| Snatches | 2:52 | 0:30 | 0:40 | 0:48 | 0:54 |
| Total | 7:56 | Â | Â | Â | Â |
As you can see in the tables above, Sasha gained her time on the wall walks and handstand push-ups while Mal closed the gap on the double-unders and snatches. The 20 seconds Sasha gained on the HSPU were more than eliminated between the double-unders and snatches.
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Ultimately, the difference between the two came down to Mal’s two no reps. While re-watching the Open announcement it does appear that Mal did move her hand off the line a split second before both feet were on the wall.
Regardless of the overall outcome, O’Brien is set to win the CrossFit Open for the second consecutive year. Nievas is currently in 15th worldwide and is on top of the South America leaderboard.
