2015 CrossFit Open: 15.3 Results & Standings

When CrossFit Games Director Dave Castro announced there would be a scaled division in the 2015 CrossFit Open, athletes around the globe started to hypothesize.

Would the workouts be harder? Would the weights be heavier? Would movements stereotypically seen midway through a workout be seen at the start?

After 15.3, we have the answer.

The workout was a 14-minute triplet of muscle-ups, wallballs and double-unders with the scaled option making it a couplet of wallballs and single skips. It was the first time in the history of the CrossFit Games Open a workout has begun with the muscle-up movement.

Shortly after the announcement a social media discussion began about the workout itself. Some felt that it shouldn’t have began with a tough movement like a muscle-up, while others made the point that the scaling option was introduced for those who felt that way.

At the end of the day the muscle-up has featured in every single CrossFit Open and it was always likely to feature again this year. And as Dave Castro stated in the 15.3 Cool Down Show, it’s a great way of finding out how many athletes in the 2015 CrossFit Games Open are able to perform a muscle-up, which is pretty cool.

There were also large amounts of joy witnessed right around the world from athletes who successfully completed their first muscle-up, and some who backed it up to get their, second, third, fourth or even fifth during the 14 minute workout.

Naturally, the most elite athletes never looked like struggling.

2013 CrossFit Games champion Sam Briggs put in an outstanding performance to log the top female score worldwide with 633 reps, which breaks down to four rounds and five muscle-ups (video embedded above).

Australian Kara Webb was the only other female to score in the 600s with 624 reps, or three full rounds and 96 double-unders (workout video embedded below). Danielle Sidell rounded out the top three with 537 reps.

In the mens division, 15 athletes were able to score 600 reps or more with Games veteran Ben Smith and a relative unknown, Brad Townsend, sharing top spot with 630 reps and a matching tie-break time of 13:49. Mathew Fraser and Josh Bridges were next on the leaderboard with 628 reps each.

The Open is now past the halfway mark and the leaderboard is starting to take a more final shape, however the race for the top spot is still very close.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (65) is in first place holding a 10 point lead over Webb (75) who has steadily been making her way up the leaderboard and sits just two points in front of Emily Bridgers (77).

The top five was rounded out by Games veterans Annie Thorisdottir (96) and Stacie Tovar (103). Tovar is making a strong run for the 2015 CrossFit Games after missing out on the 2014 event.

Briggs is still working her way up the leaderboard and now sits in 172 after struggling in Open workout 15a.

In the mens half, Fraser (123) has taken the lead from the current fittest man on earth Rich Froning (129) by just six points.

The pair have a 30 point lead on Smith (159) who sits in third place, 40 points in front of Scott Panchik (196) with Jason Khalipa (199) rounding out the top five.

The group has a strong lead on the rest of the top 10 with sixth placed Travis Mayer (302) more than 100 points behind.