Mountain bikes and cross-country skis were replaced by kettlebells, sandbags, medicine balls and sled drags at the Canmore Nordic Centre for the inaugural Rocky Mountain Crusher competition, hosted by CrossFit Canmore on Sunday (Sept. 14)
The course included a five-kilometre run and four workout stations mimicking fitness challenges commonly seen at the local Canmore CrossFit gym, and attracted 100 competitors from across Western Canada.
Local athlete extraordinaire Kim Csizmazia was the top local finisher. She was second in the women’s individual category with a time of 53:45, finishing behind Shannon Winslade. Local ski coach Kathy Davies was fourth and Rosemary Gartly was seventh.
Kris Fraser won the individual male award, followed by Brad Rourke and Jeff Stokoe. Travis Mann was the top Canmore finisher, finishing just off the podium in fourth, while Brian Calder was 10th.
In the scaled event, which used easier challenges, the father/son team of McKenzie and Terry Morgan finished first, beating out fellow Canmorites Mike Hartog and Jason Nadeau. McKenzie is well known in the valley for his Judo prowess, and established himself in the Canmore CrossFit competition.
The Morgans were the fastest team in five of their seven challenges, which included lunges with 45-pound weights held overhead, dumbbell snatches, medicine ball tossing (known as wall ball), toes to bar pull-ups, kettlebell and pushup challenges, skipping, situps, sandbag carries and sledpull sprints.
“I needed to get stronger for Judo, and CrossFit has improved my strength,” McKenzie Morgan said.
His father Terry Morgan is usually on the other side of competition, volunteering his time with KidSport or refereeing a hockey game, but joined CrossFit Canmore more than a year ago.
“I jumped on the scale one day and thought I weighed too much. I joined the gym and lost between 20 and 30 pounds,” Terry said. “This was a great event and very well organized.”
Happy to escape the box (gym) for the day, Terry said the event had a great atmosphere. Both joined CrossFit Canmore to improve their performance in other sports, so to win a medal in the Rocky Mountain Crusher was a bonus.
“It was a fun and competitive day. Everyone was encouraging and there were lots of high fives and fist bumps,” Terry said.
Other top local finishers Lianne Marquis (first – female scaled), Debra Ritche (second – female scaled), Kendra Tippe and Kim Jones (second – team female), Marie Grenon and Rebecca Dunfield (fourth – team female), Teresa Holmes and Christine Brehaut (fifth – team female), Kimber Meister and Chris Russell (sixth – team female scaled), Tommy Parrish and Lara Perkins (fourth – team mixed).
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