We’ve now seen video of both Ben Smith and Rich Froning taking on 16.2. Smith edged out Froning by a mere six seconds. We’ve watched both videos and done the analysis. So here’s how Smith gained the advantage.
As you can see in the chart below, Froning held a sizable lead throughout and had a 27 second advantage after the 225-pound squat cleans in round 3. However, Smith chipped away at that lead in the 4th round took the lead during the 5th round of toes-to-bar.
Overall, Froning was faster during he double-unders and squat cleans compared to Smith. Most of this time, however, was due to transitioning between movements that the actual speed of each movement itself. Smith was significantly faster on the toes-to-bar movement, beating Froning by 34 seconds.
On the toes-to-bar, both started out by doing all 25 T2B in 38 seconds. While both slowly took longer each round, Smith was able to maintain hold under 70 seconds for the final three rounds whereas Froning crept up towards 90 seconds on the last round.
The double-unders were relatively stable across all five rounds. Froning failed several times in the second round, which looking back cost him valuable seconds. Beyond the couple slip ups by Froning, the double-unders did not have much impact on the final result.
The squat cleans for both athletes looked effortless throughout the entire workout. Doing singles the whole time, the advantage each round came to the time transitioning to the first squat clean. The actual reps did not create much separation as Froning was only 11 seconds faster during the 55 squat cleans.
With only six seconds separating two of the top athletes in the world, there isn’t going to much to point to when looking for a deciding factor. However, it does appear that Smith was able to handle the 125 toes-to-bar slightly better than Froning giving him the upper hand.
Here are the two videos from 16.2:
