The boys’s area on the 2024 Rogue Invitational brings collectively the perfect athletes from the world of CrossFit.
- At this 12 months’s competitors, followers will see eight of the athletes who completed within the prime 10 eventually 12 months’s Rogue Invitational. And just like the 2024 CrossFit Games, there is no such thing as a clear-cut favourite for the occasion.
During the last two years, we have now seen the Rogue winner decided by just a few seconds within the remaining occasion, and 2024 may very well be the identical. So, get your popcorn prepared as a result of we’re right here with our podium picks for this epic showdown.
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The Favorites
Looking forward to the competitors in Aberdeen, Scotland, there are six males we’d count on to be in a battle for the highest spot, which incorporates the highest 5 athletes from the 2024 CrossFit Video games.
Brent Fikowski
The previous two years for “The Professor” might be summed up as “so shut.”
This 12 months, we watched as he struggled by means of the final two occasions of the Video games, squandering a 41-point result in a third-place end.
In 2023, he completed simply off the rostrum in fourth place at Wodapalooza, the Video games, and the Rogue Invitational.
- On the 2023 Rogue Invitational, he was tied with Roman Khrennikov in factors however misplaced the tiebreak.
Should you have a look at Fikowski’s 2024 season with a glass-half-full method, you’ll see that he completed on the rostrum at TYR WZA (second), the West Coast Traditional (second), and the CrossFit Video games (third).
Can the rostrum streak proceed within the final main competitors of the 12 months and Fikowski’s profession?
Dallin Pepper
Dallin Pepper’s career-best season was overshadowed by James Sprague’s victory on the 2024 CrossFit Video games. Regardless of that, he has rapidly climbed the leaderboard throughout his three journeys as a person to the Video games.
- He completed nineteenth in his rookie 12 months, fifth in 2023, and ended on the rostrum in second place this 12 months.
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Within the two lengthy monostructural occasions on the 2024 Video games — “Run Swim” and “Observe & Discipline” — Pepper misplaced by a mixed 78 factors to Sprague. These two occasions have been Pepper’s worst of the competitors, however he completed simply 21 factors behind Sprague within the total standings.
Latest Rogue Invitationals have began with a protracted occasion, and if Pepper can restrict the injury there, he has a robust probability of ending on the rostrum as soon as once more.
James Sprague
The Fittest Man on Earth is out to show that his Video games win was no fluke.
- At this 12 months’s CrossFit Video games, Sprague solely had two occasion finishes outdoors of the highest 10 and has proven he has top-end capability with an occasion win on the Video games and two on the North America West Semifinal.
The query is that if he can deal with the heavier weights we see at Rogue. He completed twenty first within the Clear Ladder on the Video games, and 14th within the Snatch Ladder at Semifinals, his worst end in each competitions.
Jayson Hopper
When taking a look at Jayson Hopper, two numbers stand out: 4 and 7.
Thus far in 2024, Hopper was fourth at TYR WZA in Groups Division, the North America East Quarterfinals, the Syndicate Crown, and on the CrossFit Video games.
- Hopper has completed seventh in all three of his appearances on the Rogue Invitational.
Hopper has additionally completed higher at Rogue than he has on the CrossFit Video games in 2021 and 2023. (In 2022, he was seventh in each.)
The programming on the Rogue Invitational performs to Hopper’s strengths, so it’s attainable to see him enhance on his Video games efficiency for the third time in 4 years.
Jeffrey Adler
Adler has been the perfect CrossFitter on the planet over the past two seasons, and he’s completed on the rostrum on the Rogue Invitational in all three of his appearances.
- Throughout this time, he has gained the CrossFit Video games, the CrossFit Open, the North America East Semifinals twice, the North America East Quarterfinals as soon as, and completed second within the Rogue Invitational.
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Adler was one of many athletes who selected to withdraw from the CrossFit Video games this summer season, so we didn’t get to see him defend his crown.
We’d count on him to be prepared to select up the place he left off on the Semifinals as the perfect CrossFitter on the planet proper now.
Patrick Vellner
Patrick Vellner is one in every of solely three athletes to compete at each Rogue Invitational.
In his 5 earlier appearances, he has had two victories, two second-place finishes, and a fourth.
- It needs to be no shock to see the 2023 Rogue Invitational champion within the combine to defend his title.
Vellner has gained a minimum of one particular person competitors yearly since 2018. Can he preserve that streak alive and grow to be the one man to win the Rogue Invitational 3 times?
Podium Picks
- Jeffrey Adler
- Dallin Pepper
- Patrick Vellner
Darkish Horses
Justin Medeiros
Justin Medeiros is barely two years faraway from his back-to-back run as Fittest Man on Earth and two-time Rogue Invitational champion.
- His CrossFit Video games didn’t go as he hoped, with an eighth-place end in 2024. This displaying marked his second consecutive 12 months outdoors of the highest 5 on the Video games.
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That mentioned, Medieros’ win on the West Coast Traditional Semifinal in Might confirmed us that he has recovered from the harm that held him out of competitors final offseason and that he can beat the perfect on the planet on any given day.
Chandler Smith
Chandler Smith made one other journey to the CrossFit Video games this 12 months as a member of CrossFit Invictus, so he didn’t obtain the person accolades he normally does.
- With much less of a highlight this 12 months, it’s straightforward to neglect Smith’s second-place end on the 2022 Rogue Invitational revitalized his profession and helped launch him to a seventh-place end on the 2023 CrossFit Video games.
Smith has gained the energy occasion in consecutive years on the Rogue Invitational and is all the time a menace to complete on the rostrum.
It’ll Be Shut
Whereas we don’t know a lot concerning the competitors, we do understand it’ll be shut.
- Quite a lot of that is splitting hairs with the lads on this record. A listing that would simply embrace Sam Kwant and Ricky Garard after they completed sixth and seventh on the Video games this 12 months.
With a stacked area, likelihood is it’ll all come right down to the cash bars within the remaining occasion.
Extra Concerning the 2024 Rogue Invitational
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