There's a movement brewing at Snake Athletic.
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What began as a small gym in regional NSW has quickly become a force in the world of Australian CrossFit.
After two of its coaches - Jake Douglas and Georgia Pryer - stunned at CrossFit Down Under in Wollongong last November, the club set its sights on its next target: the CrossFit Games.
The journey to the games is arduous. Over the last three weeks, 78 of the club's members competed in the open workouts and recorded their results.
"That's been our biggest [field] ever since our start back in 2012. So that was pretty cool," Snake Athletic manager, Mat Crowe, said.
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"A lot of them went above and beyond what they normally do, so it was awesome to see that."
The top 10 per cent of members worldwide who complete these workouts progress to the quarterfinals of their region which, in Snake Athletic's case, is Oceania.
And this year, 10 members from the gym qualified for the next step - twice as many as in 2022.
"I'm chuffed, I'm really happy," Crowe said.
"It's something that we always aim to do ... so it's all positive signs."
Douglas (12th in Oceania men) currently leads the rankings among the four local men who qualified, ahead of Toby Turnham, Joe Lockwood, and Kyle Ridley, while Pryer (15th in Oceania women) is the highest-ranked Tamworth woman with Kiara Briggs, Caitlin Ham, Maisie Wilde, Ellen Ellis, and Jessica Bradbery also through.
The next step is the quarterfinals, which will take place between March 16 and April 2.
While Crowe believes in the local athletes, he knows the challenge is "going to be tough".
"You have five workouts over the weekend. You may have two in a day or one in a day, and you won't find that out until the morning," he said.
"So you basically have to turn up, get the work done, and you have one crack at it."
Where athletes in the open rounds had the benefit of multiple attempts at a certain workout, they only have one this time around, all five of which must be done in one weekend.
From there, the top 30 athletes in each region will progress to the semi-finals, which for Oceania will be held in Brisbane from May 26 to 28.
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