Over 50 CrossFit All Out members from Newton Aycliffe attended the ‘Battle of the Boxes’ event in Colchester on 10th April, to support their qualifying team of 5 in the finals. “Team All Out” for their second year, consisted of Head Coach Terry Anderson, Coach Joe Allinson, Coach Kelly Keers and longstanding members Colin Wooster and Yasmine Meite.
Up against 47 other qualifying teams battling through 5 gruelling team workouts, their highest placing throughout the day was 7th, then making it to the semi-finals and finishing in 12th place overall. Coach Terry said “I’m very happy with our results, we have a great team who support each other and between us we have some strong skills in CrossFit. Each team member has a solid work ethic and the support from our members is just outstanding and constantly growing. We look forward to seeing what next year brings!”
2 of the Academy teens, Connor Elston and Kieran Martin also competed for the first time in a venue other than their own CrossFit gym. Coach Terry has assistance at Academy sessions from fellow Coach Kelly Keers, who was really impressed with their performance, saying “these teens have certainly done themselves proud this weekend, showing tremendous maturity and performing to a very high standard.” Coach Terry added “They are improving week in, week out, gaining more experience with every competition they enter and they give it their all at every session, we couldn’t be more proud of them. The highlight was all the teens cheering on the girl last to finish the final workout, struggling to get her last pull-up. CrossFit is the only sport where the last to finish gets the loudest cheers, even from other competitors. It’s humbling to see.”
Last but not least, the youngest competitors of the day were Zack Cooke aged 12, Natalie Fawcett aged 10 and Dylan Hackett aged 9, taking part in the kids competition. This was not scored and was designed to introduce kids to the competitive arena, but ensure that having fun and enjoying the experience was priority. Vikki Anderson, Terry’s wife and CrossFit All Out Business Manager, was amazed at the kids confidence throughout the event. “Terry has been running the CrossFit Kids and pre-school sessions for less than a year and they are very popular with 32 kids, 18 pre-schoolers and a waiting list! However, as parents ourselves we were nervous for these few kids in their first competition, in a large venue, miles away from home, with hundreds of adult athletes spectating – we hoped they wouldn’t get stage fright and be put off, but of course they were completely undeterred! They confidently carried out all the movements to such a high standard and fully embraced the experience. Natalie literally smiled throughout each workout! It was great to see them all working so hard and enjoying themselves. We have to thank their parents for being so supportive and bringing them along to take part, it’s exciting to see the kids progressing so well each week, gaining confidence whilst having fun, which is exactly what it’s all about!”
For more information, please visit www.crossfitallout.co.uk or contact Vikki at hello@crossfitallout.co.uk or 07788 123321.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN 2016
CrossFit All Out competitor Yasmine Meite placed 32nd out of the top 60 that qualified for this competition in Birmingham on 17th April, whilst competitor and Coach Kelly Keers placed 13th in the Masters category (40+). “Both girls delivered strong performances and are constantly improving. To compete two weekends in a row is impressive and they did themselves proud, as always.”
