The Hopper Warrior was created and organised by CrossFit Pahlawan from Malaysia with an aim to build and strengthen the growing CrossFit community in Asia. CrossFit athletes were put to the true test of fitness based on the modalities of weightlifting, gymnastics, and monostructural.

Athletes from around Asia as far as Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Brunei, Netherlands, USA and from all over Malaysia met in Citta Mall, Selangor for a showdown in Malaysia.

Joy Somers representing CrossFit Phuket and Bronwyn Clacher from CrossFit FMA tied for the Women’s RX category but Joy just pipped Bronwyn in the last event for the win. Both women were often trading first and second places on the leaderboard, with Bronwyn winning first place in five events, and Joy with first place in four events of the ten events over two days. Reebok Malaysia’s Ambassador Foo Mei Kuen from CrossFit Pahlawan completed the podium.

Double celebrations were in order for Joy, who also led her team Unit 27-CrossFit Phuket to a strong win in the Team event, with three first place wins out of seven events. The team played to their strengths and strategised for all their events very well to come up tops amongst seventeen teams from all over Asia.

Edmund Tan from CrossFit 852 in Hong Kong won the Men’s RX category with a close edge over rivals Sue Yung Jen from CrossFit Malaysia and Nazamal Zaman from CrossFit Extremis who completed the podium. They each won one event respectively, but consistency was the name of the game to hold onto podium places.

Beginners to the CrossFit competition were placed in the Scaled category which had easier movements in each event. The men’s scaled was won by Anthony Lui from CrossFit Kinabalu who narrowly beat Khoo Teik Guan from Thrack Movement, while Whitney Bradley from CrossFit Berzerk won the Women’s edging out Patricia Santos from CrossFit Phuket.

Unit 27 from CrossFit Phuket beat sixteen other teams comprising two men and two women each in the Team category, while Borneo Alpha and Mean Machine Bah completed the podium.

Whitney Bradley represented CrossFit Berserk from Florida, USA and it was the first time she was participating in a two-day competition. She rose up to the challenge of six workout of the day (WOD) structure and immersed herself in the intense competition.

“The Hopper Warrior was a very well run competition and honestly the hardest competition I have been in. The WOD’s and order of movements were strategically created to make you re-think why you signed up in the first place. Two minutes of wall balls after nine minutes of using your legs on the skierg, rower, and assault bike!” said Whitney.

“They were challenging but that’s what you train for and the CrossFit environment makes it worth every second. When the crowd comes alive it fuels me and all I want to do is give it all I’ve got before that buzzer rings. I’d much rather leave the floor crawling than walk away knowing I didn’t leave it all on the floor,” added Whitney.

“We are glad everyone had a good time. We started The Hopper Warrior with the aim to grow the CrossFit community in Asia and competitions like this allows the novice and the experienced to test their fitness level. We hope to bring The Hopper Warrior to greater heights in the years to come!,” said coaches Dann and Regina who were instrumental in conceptualising and organising The Hopper Warrior.

The Grand Finale of The Hopper Warrior 2016 is inspired by “The Hopper” model built upon CrossFit’s second fitness standard. Winners walked away with cash prizes and sponsored products and vouchers from the event sponsors.

To view more photos, visit Tough Asia’s Facebook album.

Photos were taken using Casio Exilim FR100. #casioexilimfr100 #wefieiscasio