Liang Kong, who is CrossFit’s country manager in China and also runs a CrossFit “box” in Hangzhou, said this event is massive for both CrossFit and China, where the sport is exploding in cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

“The ACC (Asia CrossFit Championship) is not a competition. It is the Belt and Road for connecting China [and] this profound ancient continent, with the rest of the world ... It is the initiative for making CrossFit a part of the Middle Kingdom’s movement pattern.”

The ACC will be live streaming the entire event on both YouTube and Youku, and the link will be available on scmp.com tomorrow. There is also a WeChat page (asiacfchampionship) available which details the competition and results.

Each day there will also be a Day-In-Review Show hosted by Tommy Marquez and Rory McKernan, which will be available on the ACC's social media channels.

CrossFit commentator Brian Friend predicts Canada’s Brent Fikowski will come out on top for the men, Norway’s Kristin Holte for the women and Rich Froning’s Mayhem Freedom in the team event.

CrossFit have now released the workouts for all three days. The men’s and women’s event features treadmill running, sandbag cleans, wall balls, biking, rowing and skiing on workout equipment, with thrusters and muscle-ups to start the competition. The team event (with each unit comprising two men and two women) features the famous log carry, rope climbs and handstand walks.

Each day of competition runs from approximately 9am to 5pm (Hong Kong time) and the whole competition concludes with the final individual event for the men and women on Monday, April 29 at 3.45pm.

For those in Shanghai the event is free and open to the public, but you must request tickets via asiacrossfitchampionship.com.

The China Invitational was started back in 2017 and featured 92 athletes, 40,000 spectators and was given confirmation from CrossFit last year that it will be one of two Sanctionals to be held in China in 2019, the other being in December in Chengdu.