Need help making it to Regionals? Try moving to Central East…

Welcome back everybody!  It seems like some folks are stumbling upon the blog once again now that the 2012 Open is around the corner.   After getting a few encouraging emails I felt renewed (reenergized?)to post again.

Where were we?   Ah yes, the Central East region boast some serious crossfitters, including last year’s world champion, Rich Froning, and the 2011 winner of the Open, Dan Bailey.  On the women’s side, Central East had the pleasure of hosting the beautiful and talented Julie Foucher.  Why would I recommend a move to that region?

Well if you’re striving for regionals, you might look at those who qualified last in each region, to figure out which one is the ‘easiest’.  Last year, and I believe this year as well, the top 60 men and women in each region move on to regional section of the competition.  The difference then, between qualifying and not qualifying is beating that 60^th person.

Plotted below is a chart showing the overall 2011 Open placement (listed in parathesis) of the 60^th person in each region.   I’ve left Asia, Africa, and Latin America off the chart, where Crossfit is still expanding and the number of athletes is small relative to other regions. 

In the United States, the Central East’s 60^th person finished behind all other US regions, for both women and men.   The region to region comparisons can be striking.  For example, Southern California’s 60^th male finished 508^th in the open, while Central East’s finished at 1042*.   Another way of stating it – Central East’s 60^th man would have placed 101st in Southern California.  On the women’s side, Central East’s 60^th placer would have come in at 113^th in the Mid-Atlantic region, which… cough cough… borders the Central East region! 

Comparison of the last place qualifiers (ie 60th man/woman) for regionals*.  The numbers represent the overall 2011 Open ranking of these athletes.   Asia, Africa, and Latin America not shown.

The suggestion to move for my US readers is, of course, made in jest.  Whether the competition last year predicts the competition this year is uncertain, and I hesitate to make any bold predictions.   It’ll be fun to find out this year though!

*Note:  My definition of 60th placer may not be the 'true' last regional qualifier because I'm using the overall worldwide Open results, rather than breaking down the athletes into regions (which is how HQ actually does it), and then back calculating their overall Open results.  The reason I've done this is simple: laziness.  I've done enough checking though to say with strong confidence that the plot overall is quite accurate, just not perfectly accurate.