Dubai CrossFit Championship day one recap: Katrin Davidsdottir drops out while Samantha Briggs and Roman Khrennikov lead

The Dubai CrossFit Championship ended before it began for one favourite as competitors had to deal with the unlikely event of rain to start off the sport’s most coveted Sanctional.

Iceland’s Katrin Davidsdottir was forced to pull out of the competition the morning of the first event – a swim and sandbag event on the shores of the iconic Jumeirah Mina A’Salam – due to a sore back. The competition was delayed as rain poured down early in the morning, but it quickly subsided and gave way to blue skies.

Returning champion and CrossFit veteran Samantha Briggs seized the opportunity. Briggs, 37, who won the CrossFit Games back in 2013 and came 17th earlier this year, went full-on, knowing tomorrow might not be her time to shine. She now sits in first ahead of Emily Rolfe and Julie Hougard, while the men are led by Russian Roman Khrennikov.

“Tomorrow’s event, the max clean and jerk, I’m going to take a hit points-wise,” said Briggs, who tied for third in the first event, which saw competitors swim in the scope of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel. “So today was all about getting as many points as I could … I went hard on the beach and gave it everything I had.”

Briggs followed that up by coming first and second in a two-part continuous bike/run event at the NAS Sports Complex. The NAS is a private facility that was built by the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, has hosted training sessions for Manchester United and various other English Premier League teams.