During one of the cool-down shows during this past year’s CrossFit Open, Dave Castro hinted that a 35-39 year old Masters division may be considered in the future. As the demands on the individual competition become more and more difficult, the sport is becoming younger. Those changes may facilitate a 6th masters division.
So what would the 35-39 Masters division look like?
First, we took a look at the top 200 athletes worldwide who would qualify for the Masters Qualifier. The 200th-ranked male was Robert Santoro. Out of the North East region, Santoro finished 320th in the region in the individual competition, well out of contention for qualifying for the individual Regionals.
Next, we looked at the top 20 athletes from the Open to get a perspective of who would end up qualifying for the Games. This list contained some big names and former Games athletes such as Nuno Costa, Guido Trinidad, Gabe Subry, David Levey, Numi Katrinarson and Chris Spealler. Seeing these guys throw down in Carson (or where ever it will be in 2017) would be awesome. The 20th-ranked athlete, Adam Izzo, finished 56th in the North East region during the Open.
We also looked at the women’s side as well. The 200th-ranked on the woman’s side was Stacy Rawlings. Rawlings finished 151st in the Central East region in the individual competition, again well out of Regional contention.
The top 20 women, however, featured some huge names. Joey Kimdon, Tiffany Hendrickson, Rebecca Voigt, Talayna Fortunato, Elisabeth Akinwale, Jessica Martinez and Amy Dracup all sat in the top 20 in the Open. The 20th-ranked athlete, Sarah Franklin, finished 21st in the South East region during the Open in the individual competition.
The Masters divisions beginning at the 40-44 year age group provides some exciting action, but moving down five years to 35-39 years old would provide even more entertainment during the CrossFit Games. Right now, this age group is generally unable to compete with the 25-year-old phenoms, yet are too young to be in a masters division. It would give these athletes something to train for and a more achievable goal next season should Castro open it up to those 35+.
