CrossFit: Snake Athletic trio qualify for Oceania semi-finals

At least, that's what owner and coach, Jake Douglas, believes. And given the gym's results at the recently-concluded CrossFit Games quarter finals, they'll be hard to deny.

The Tamworth-based gym had a record 10 competitors take part in the quarter-finals, and of that group, three have progressed to the semi-finals, to be held in Brisbane at the end of May.

There, Douglas will be joined by Georgia Pryer, alongside whom he competed at the Down Under Championship in Wollongong last year, while teenage newcomer, Maisie Wilde has also qualified for the age group semis, which will be held online at the end of this month.

"It feels like we're building something really special at the moment," Douglas said.

"We've always had some competitors in this space, I've been doing it for a while, but now to have the likes of Georgia and Maisie coming through - and they're just two of the stacks of people here that have real potential."

Originally, Douglas qualified in fifth place in the Oceania open men's division of the quarter-finals, but after two withdrawals he has moved into third. Pryer, meanwhile, also qualified fifth in the open women's division, while Wilde finished 19^th in the global 16 and 17 girls division.

With backgrounds in gymnastics, Pryer and Wilde had good bases on which to build their CrossFit careers.

As Pryer is older by several years, and has previous experience competing in high-level CrossFit events, she is heartened to see young newcomers like Wilde following in her footsteps.

"It's really exciting," Pryer said.

"It makes me proud to see the girls wanting to give it a crack and do really well at it ... I feel proud and honoured to be leading them and to be a role model for those girls and women."

Not only is Wilde preparing to compete for a place at the Crossfit Games finals, she is also in Year 12 at Calrossy and buried under mountains of homework.

But, she said, while her life primarily consists of studying and training at the moment, the burden is made much lighter by the support of Douglas and Pryer.

"I've got so many people helping me," the 17-year-old said.

"I've got my nutritionist, June, and Jake and Georgia do my programming. I train in the morning, go to school, then come back and train in the afternoon.

"It's pretty hard, but if you love it, it's not as bad. I just learn everything from [Douglas and Pryer], it's so good to have them there because they're so good at what they do."

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