Opinion | Dubai CrossFit Championship: Canadians Patrick Vellner and Brent Fikowski out for redemption after 2019 Games missteps

The two previous podium finishers found themselves outside the top 15 as CrossFit’s new cut format hit them hard

Reading Time:3 minutes

Canadian Brent Fikowski is looking to bounce back from a poor showing at the 2019 CrossFit Games. Photo: Handout

Published: 11:34am, 5 Dec 2019Updated: 11:34am, 5 Dec 2019

Early on the Saturday morning in August at the 2019 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin after the sprint event, the axe came down hard on the athletes like it never had before.

Three days into a four-day competition, and with still five events over two days to go, only 10 athletes remained from a field of 142. CrossFit’s season of change included cuts for the Games, something competitors weren’t expecting, and, boy, did it show.

Two notable names left watching the final events plus the whole final day of competition on the men’s side had many scratching their heads: Canadians Patrick Vellner and Brent Fikowski. Vellner, 29, came second in 2018 and third in both 2017 and 2016. However, in 2019 he slipped to 16th. Fikowski, 28, came fourth in 2018, second in 2017 and fourth in 2016 during his debut, but dropped all the way to 23rd at the last Games.

So what happened to the two Canadian boys who many pegged to do what Noah Ohlsen ended up doing and challenge for Goliath Mat Fraser’s crown? The answer is probably forever left within a spinning helix of variables too complicated to produce a quantifiable answer, but one thing is for certain: a fire has been lit under both of these guys’ bottoms heading into 2020.

Patrick Vellner is heading to Dubai looking like he is back in form after coming 16th at the 2019 CrossFit Games. Photo: Handout

Dubai’s CrossFit Championship is going to offers fans a chance to watch two athletes rise like phoenixes out of the ashes of the Games. Both Fikowski and Vellner will be there, and you can bet the farm they both want to wash the bitter taste of Madison out with some hefty prize money from CrossFit’s most lucrative Sanctional (US$50,000 to the winner). Vellner crushed the five-week online qualifier for Dubai alongside taking the CrossFit Open for 2020 (he came 30th in 2019), holding off Fraser and newcomer Lefteris Theofanidis from Greece, who will also be in Dubai.