CrossFit Games 2025 Day 2 Recap: Hopper Lifts Heavy, Toomey Stays Clinical

If day one was about setting intentions, day two was about consolidating them. Four events over twelve hours — a pace that demands energy management as much as physical output. The athletes who emerged from August 2 with championship viability weren't necessarily the ones who won individual events. They were the ones who avoided the catastrophic finishes.

Tia-Clair Toomey had zero catastrophic finishes. Jayson Hopper lifted a 160kg clean and jerk.

Event 3: Synchro Pairs

Format: Partner chipper (athletes from different countries, paired by CrossFit) — 50 Synchro Burpee Box Jump Overs, 40 Synchro Wall Ball Shots (30/20 lb), 30 Synchro Toes-to-Bar, 20 Synchro Hang Power Cleans (185/135 lb), 10 Synchro Shoulder-to-Overhead (185/135 lb)

The synchro format is always a wildcard. Pairs are determined by CrossFit — athletes can't choose their partners — and the chemistry between athletes who've never trained together affects performance significantly. The scoring format awards both paired athletes the same placement.

Men's Highlights

Event Winners (Pair): Jayson Hopper & James Sprague — Two athletes who've trained adjacent competitive circuits had remarkably similar movement timing. Their burpee box jump overs were perfectly synchronized from the start, a rhythm that held through the cleans and shoulder-to-overhead. Winning a synchro event requires actual compatibility, and these two had it.

Notable Pair: Jeff Adler & Brent Fikowski — Two Canadians, same result. Their shoulder-to-overhead was crisp and gave them a 3rd-place finish.

Women's Highlights

Event Winners (Pair): Tia-Clair Toomey & Aimee Cringle — The pairing of the championship leader with the day one surprise performer was perfectly matched in terms of movement efficiency. Cringle's gym background produces timing awareness that suits synchro formats well. They moved through the wall balls and T2B with a cadence that built advantage early.

Notable Performance: Haley Adams & Lucy Campbell — These two ran 2nd through most of the event before losing ground on the shoulder-to-overhead. Still a 3rd-place finish for both.

Synchro Standout

The synchro format is an event type that can swing points dramatically depending on partner pairings. Athletes who win here often benefit from paired luck as much as personal performance. Hopper benefited — but so did Cringle, whose points total by end of day two was legitimately excellent.

Event 4: Heavy Lifting Complex

Format: For load — Clean + Front Squat + Split Jerk. Three attempts, best load counts.

This is pure strength. CrossFit Games heavy lifting events are among the most watched of any competition — athletes going max, crowds going loud, occasional failures that produce social media clips for months.

Men's Results

1st: Jayson Hopper — 160kg (353 lbs) — This number needs context. Hopper is not primarily considered a weightlifting specialist. His opening attempt at 145kg was crisp. His second at 152kg was confident. His third at 160kg was a fight — he took an extra breath before the jerk, drove it overhead, and held it. The crowd reaction was appropriate.

2nd: Lazar Đukić — 155kg (342 lbs) — The Serbian's jerk technique is textbook European-style weightlifting. His press under the bar is fast and stable. Three clean lifts across three attempts.

3rd: Jeff Adler — 152kg (335 lbs) — Adler's weightlifting form is reliable under fatigue. His competition-day maxes tend to land right where his training maxes suggest, which is a useful trait.

DNF for Loading: Patrick Vellner — Vellner missed his second-attempt jerk (145kg), made his third (147kg), but the bobble on attempt two cost him the aggressive jump to 152kg he'd planned. Finished 8th in the event.

Women's Results

1st: Tia-Clair Toomey — 102kg (225 lbs) — For reference, Toomey has competed as a -59kg and -64kg Olympic weightlifter. Her clean and jerk maxes in the sport of weightlifting are well above this. The Games complex is not testing her ceiling; it's confirming her floor. She took the event without visible struggle.

2nd: Laura Horvath — 96kg (212 lbs) — The Hungarian is genuinely strong. Her front squat mechanics are reliable and she drives the jerk well. Second in this event is the kind of anchor that prevents the points from slipping.

3rd: Aimee Cringle — 90kg (198 lbs) — A personal competition record for Cringle. She opened at 80kg, hit 87kg clean, then went for 90 on her third attempt and locked it out with a shout that told the whole arena what it meant to her.

Lifting Notes

The complex format (clean + front squat + jerk) is more demanding than a straight clean and jerk because the front squat requires holding position before driving into the jerk. Athletes who fatigue in their upper back position can lose the jerk even if the clean was smooth. Hopper's 160kg with that format is legitimately impressive.

Event 5: Pegboard + Rope Climb Sprint

Format: For time — 3 Pegboard ascents, 3 Rope Climbs (legless), 3 Pegboard ascents, 3 Rope Climbs (legless). Time cap: 8 minutes.

This is a pure gymnastics endurance event. If you can't do legless rope climbs efficiently, this event will destroy your day. Several athletes found out in real time.

Men's Results

1st: Lazar Đukić — His shoulder strength-to-bodyweight ratio is exceptional. He moved through the pegboard with an efficiency that looked mechanical and hit legless climbs using a technique so smooth the crowd went quiet trying to figure out how he was making it look that easy.

2nd: James Sprague — Sprague's gymnastics performance at the Games was a recurring theme of day two. Second place here confirmed he wasn't a one-event wonder.

3rd: Ricky Garard — The Australian's upper body pulling strength is elite. His comeback to the Games has been marked by events exactly like this one.

DNF (Cap): 4 athletes — Four men hit the 8-minute cap on the event. None of them were in the top 10 overall at the end of the day.

Women's Results

1st: Haley Adams — This was Adams' event. Her upper body gymnastics have always been extraordinary, and legless rope climbs specifically play to her relative strength (shoulders and lat engagement over leg drive). She finished with 45 seconds to spare, having not looked particularly challenged.

2nd: Tia-Clair Toomey — She is not the best gymnast at the Games. She doesn't need to be. Second in an event that isn't her primary strength is disciplined, intelligent competition.

3rd: Emily Rolfe — A surprise podium for the Canadian, who used clean pegboard transitions to gain ground she couldn't have made on the climb speed alone.

Event 6: Swim + Sandbag Carry

Format: 400m Open Water Swim, then 200m Sandbag Carry (100 lb / 70 lb)

The swim was in the Hudson River adjacent to the venue — conditions were calm. The sandbag weights were punishing. 100 lbs carried over 200 meters post-swim, on legs that have already survived three days of competition, produces footage that's difficult to watch and impossible not to.

Men's Results

1st: Brent Fikowski — The endurance specialist's open water swimming is a genuine skill. He exited the water in 3rd and used the sandbag carry to overtake two athletes who appeared to be managing cramps. His carry technique — bag high, elbows forward — minimized spinal loading.

2nd: Roman Khrennikov — Another strong swim performance from the Russian. He's a complete athlete; no obvious weaknesses.

3rd: Hopper — Third place in the event, crucially not losing significant points. His carry was steady rather than fast, but steady was enough.

Drama: Patrick Vellner dropped his bag — Twice. He recovered both times, but the time lost pushed him to 12th in the event and slid his overall standings from 7th to 9th by end of day two.

Women's Results

1st: Laura Horvath — The swim portion was decisive. Horvath's open water swimming has been a developed skill in her training. She exited the water with a 15-second lead and protected it through the sandbag carry.

2nd: Lucy Campbell — The British athlete's running background extends to triathlon-adjacent aerobic work. She's comfortable in open water and her sandbag mechanics were strong.

3rd: Beth Shadburne — A quietly excellent day two for Shadburne, who finished in 3rd here and sat comfortably inside the top 6 overall.

Day 2 Overall Standings (After 4 Events)

Men's Standings

1. Jayson Hopper — 8 cumulative points (1st, 3rd, 1st, 3rd) 2. Jeff Adler — 14 points 3. Brent Fikowski — 16 points 4. Lazar Đukić — 17 points 5. Roman Khrennikov — 18 points 6. James Sprague — 19 points

Women's Standings

1. Tia-Clair Toomey — 6 cumulative points (1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd) 2. Haley Adams — 15 points 3. Aimee Cringle — 16 points 4. Laura Horvath — 20 points 5. Lucy Campbell — 22 points 6. Beth Shadburne — 24 points

Reading the Day Two Numbers

Toomey's margin is substantial. Six points through four events — essentially four top-2 finishes — creates a cushion that requires catastrophic collapse or multiple event wins by challengers to overcome. That doesn't mean it's over; it means she'd have to actively blow it on day three.

Hopper has a tighter lead in the men's. Adler is 6 points behind with three events remaining. A win and a 2nd for Adler, paired with two 4th-place finishes for Hopper, closes the gap entirely. Day three will be a genuine race.

The Cringle story continues. Third in the overall standings for a UK athlete is uncharted territory. Her day three performance will define her legacy in this sport regardless of where she finishes.

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Day 3 finals recap → [Games 2025 Day 3: Atlas Stones and the Final Events](/articles/crossfit-games-2025-day-3-recap)