CrossFit: Jake Douglas and Georgia Pryer stand out at Down Under Championship

When he and Georgia Pryer left Tamworth last week to attend the CrossFit Down Under Championships in Wollongong, he believed he was in with a chance of winning, or at least earning a place.

But the heat of battle can quickly change your perception.

And it was only on the second day of the three-day long tournament that he really began to think that a place was not only possible, but likely.

"It was the midway point on day two for me," Douglas said.

"That was a real damage control workout, which was my worst finish as well, and I came ninth in it. When I worked out the points that I'd accumulated already, and what events were left to come, I thought I was definitely close."

Douglas finished in second place on 604 points, 44 behind Australian number one Jay Crouch.

Pryer, meanwhile, also put forward a career-best performance and finished fifth in the open women's division on 532 points.

Unlike Douglas, who carries a fervent desire to compete in the CrossFit Games (essentially a world championship), Pryer is much more modest in her ambition and simply hopes to see where the sport takes her.

However, she did admit that the weekend's result was a significant boost to her self-belief.

"It just gives you a little bit more of a confidence boost," Pryer said.

"We'll see what happens again next year, see if I'm any closer. I would love to be [at the CrossFit Games], of course, but I just try to better myself each competition."

Almost every goal that the pair set themselves leading into the weekend, they ticked off.

Both wanted to improve their consistency across all events, be competitive against some of the elite athletes in attendance, and improve on their rankings.

Given they were a humble pair from a regional area in which CrossFit is still very much growing, Douglas (who owns and is a coach at Snake Athletic) was ecstatic.

"It's everything," he said.

"It's amazing, if someone had told me 10 years ago that we'd have this result from the gym now, it would have seemed impossible. But now it's here, it's a reality, and I'm really proud of what we're doing."

Pryer and Douglas were not relying solely on the well-wishes of friends and family back home.

A Tamworth contingent came to the event with them, which Pryer said gave both competitors a boost.

"When you need it the most, they're there yelling out, cheering you on," she said.

"When you can hear your name, it gives you a little more fight that you didn't think you had left."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: