Nine Collingwood athletes have qualified to compete against the top 25 per cent of CrossFit athletes in the eastern part of North America.
Stephanie McKean, Andrew Boyce, Brittany Freund, Jordan Dlouchy, Sarah Messervey, Ana Mann, Cedric George, Scott Emslie, and Martha Whitton recently qualified to compete in the quarterfinals this weekend leading into the CrossFit Games, a world-wide competition that will crown the fittest athletes in the world.
McKean co-owns and is head coach at Collingwood-based CrossFit Indestri, where all the competing athletes train.
“These aren’t professional athletes. Our guys are everyday people with jobs who come to our facility to train for one hour a day. To have nine of them qualify – we’re proud of them. It shows how hard they worked and their training has paid off,” said Jennifer Nichol, co-owner of CrossFit Indestri.
The Collingwood athletes haven’t quit their day jobs, and most of the qualifying athletes are relatively new to CrossFit. Messervey is one of the owners of Collingwood Coffee Co., Whitton is a local real estate agent, Mann is a firefighter, Boyce works for a software company, Freund is a physician’s assistant and Dlouchy works for 3M.
All nine athletes qualified during the CrossFit Open in February, where CrossFit takes the top 25 per cent of athletes in regions from all over the world to the second stage: the quarterfinals. Qualifiers from this weekend’s quarterfinals will move on to the semifinals, and then to the CrossFit Games this summer.
More than 300,000 athletes from all over the world took part in the CrossFit Open this year to qualify.
“We have people who have never competed in the Open before. The goal of the Open for us as an affiliate is just to have fun,” said Nichol. “It’s like getting to play with NHL hockey players.”
CrossFit Indestri is Collingwood’s local CrossFit affiliate that was founded in 2010 and is owned by Nichol, McKean and Chris Stoutenburg.
For more information on CrossFit Indestri, click here.
