Wodapalooza 2020: Tia-Clair Toomey and Patrick Vellner win CrossFit sanctional in Miami

Tia-Clair Toomey and Patrick Vellner won the women’s and men’s Wodapalooza sanctional after a four-day battle for the top spot. Both were made to work for their victories. Toomey was in second place after day two, but made her experience count at the tail end. Vellner was as low as third at one point and left it until the last day to move into first.

Wodapalooza is a hotly contested sanctional, from February 20 to 23, attracting some of the biggest names in the sport. Toomey, from Australia, is a three-times CrossFit Games winner, and she had to beat Icelander Sara Sigmundsdottir, who came third in the Games in 2015 and 2016.

There were two workouts on the final day called “down up” and “celebrate life”. In the first, athletes had to complete deadlifts weighing 335lbs (151kg) for men or 225lb (102kg) for the women, and bar facing burpees. They had to do 12 reps, then nine reps, then six, nine and finally 12 again of both exercises as quickly as possible.

In “celebrate life”, athletes had to do 50 wall balls weighing 30lb or 20lb, up 10ft or 9ft for men and women respectively, 40 calories ski erg, 30 dumb bell snatches 70lb or 50lb, 20 box jump overs 36” or 30” and 15 bar muscle-ups as quickly as possible.

Toomey was in first place entering the final day but had Sigmundsdottir snapping at her heels. The Australian drove home her advantage by winning both of the day’s events.