Erin Light is pumped, physically and emotionally.
The Whitehorse athlete just earned herself a spot at the world championships following a second place finish at the CrossFit Canada West regional championship in Richmond, B.C., on Sunday.
“I feel absolutely fantastic and ridiculously sore,” said Light. “At the end of one event I just collapsed because I was so tired.”
Light climbed, lifted, ran and thrusted to second place by finishing in the top-10 in six out of seven events over the weekend.
The 26-year-old placed first out of the 37 competitors in the sixth event, which was comprised of 100 double-unders, 50 handstand pushups, 40 toes-to-bar, 30 shoulder-to-overheads, and a 90-feet of walking lunges.
She competed that in 11 minutes and 31 seconds, almost a minute-and-a-half faster than the second place finisher in the event.
“The make-or-break of that workout was if you could do handstand pushups,” said Light. “I trained with them very, very hard before I left and it paid off.”
She also tied for third in the third event, completing 30 burpees and muscle-ups in 7:07.
“I did really well in an event ‘muscle-ups’ where you hang from the rings and you get yourself above the rings with your arms locked out,” said Light. “I have a really strong gymnastics background and that really helped me out.”
Light’s worst event was the final one, placing 12th. However, she went into it with enough of a lead to maintain the all-important second place spot.
Only the top two finishers were awarded spots at the world championships - the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games - at the end of July in Carson, California.
She placed second overall behind Lethbridge, Alta.‘s Heather Gillespie and in front of third place’s Erica Livett from Okanagan, B.C.
“I’m surprised with how well I’ve done, but I’ve put a lot of hours in training,” said Light. “I’m really grateful for the people around me. Nothing can parallel the support from the CrossFit community. I’m very grateful for that.”
Light, who is a member of CrossFit Whitehorse out of Peak Fitness in Riverdale, didn’t arrive at the regional championships because of weeks of training. It was because of years of training and weeks of competing.
Light qualified for the regionals by placing in a two-way tie for third out of 1,794 athletes in the CrossFit Open in the Canada West women’s division in April following five weeks of intense competition.
For five weeks she, and nine other registered athletes in CrossFit Whitehorse, completed weekly workouts assigned by the CrossFit’s international governing body. The results were then submitted through CrossFit Whitehorse for rankings.
Last year Light placed 28th in the CrossFit Open and went on to place 11th at the Canada West regionals. But that was when she was doing it on her own before she joined the Whitehorse chapter.
“I think it was all related to the support I had in Whitehorse,” said Light. “Not only did I have a gym to train at - Erin and Cliff (Schultz) purchased a gym and made CrossFit Whitehorse what it is - I had a lot of support from the community and my friends and it went a long way.”
Light began CrossFit while studying at Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, in 2010. She won bronze at the Battle on the Border, a CrossFit competition, early in the year in Lloydminster, Alta.
CrossFit was founded in 2000 and has exploded from 13 affiliated gyms in 2005 to over 6,100 around the world today.
The CrossFit Games have been held annually since 2007.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com