Immediately following the publication of Josh Bridges’ video of his winning performance for 16.4, fans began questioning the validity of the deadlift reps. Most people commenting felt that Josh Bridges was not fully locking out at the top of his deadlifts. CJ Martin defended the video saying that CrossFit reviewed the video and deemed it acceptable, but did indicate that some of the reps were “questionable”.
Arguments on social media and other websites continued with people taking both sides. Some argued that the fisheye lens distorted the video and that the reps were good. Others pointed to the athletes doing the workout alongside Bridges and felt those reps were even further from the required movements.
Thursday night, CrossFit announced that they would be applying a 15 percent penalty to Bridges’ 330 reps, taking him down to 280. As of 7:49am Friday morning, his score still reflects 330 reps so we don’t know how much this will affect his position on the leaderboard. In the Southern California region, 280 reps would be good for 6th place in 16.4.
With the penalty, Froning’s 315 reps would be the top score in the world for 16.4, pending video review. Coincidentally (maybe?), Froning posted video from his 16.4 workout yesterday afternoon, which appears to meet all of the movement standards.
Bridges has already posted his 16.5 score at a blistering 7:15, a full 51 seconds ahead of Fraser’s Open Announcement performance.
What do you think? Did CrossFit make the right decision to penalize Bridges for the video, even after a member of the judging team deemed it acceptable? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
