Gary Wilson and Raymond Orr continued a remarkable run of local success in Crossfit competitions with victory in The Glacier Games in England before Christmas.

The pair dominated their category winning four of the five disciplines to ease to victory against opposition from across the United Kingdom, and maintain a remarkable run that has seen local Crossfit competitors win prize after prize in competitions throughout Ireland and the UK.

Crossfit is a fast growing new form of fitness competition with its varied and intensive nature combining several different forms of fitness into one workout that has proved very popular for all ages and abilities.

“It has been proven that that sort of fitness regime will give guaranteed results,” said coach Gary Wilson.

“Crossfit is a high intensity training programme split into three components. One is weight lifting and we deal with a lot of barbell work. The second part is gymnastics, so things like pull ups and different progressions. The third part is cardiovascular which is the running, rowing, cycling, swimming and that sort of stuff. Crossfit it all three of these amalgamated, and when the guys come for a workout it will combine the three of these together. Very rarely will you get any other fitness programme that combines the three together. You have body builders that do very little cardio, you get marathon runners that just run but couldn’t lift their body weight, but in cross fir you try to find the person that is good at everything. We are looking for the type of person that can lift weights, can do gymnastics and run like Gebrselassie.”

Gary Wilson reflected on the recent successes: “As a coach it’s not often I get the chance to compete with my athletes as I’m usually in more of a coaching role but it was great to take the floor with Raymie and produce the goods to finish out an outstanding year for us at CFE with competitions in the U.K and Ireland,” said Gary.

“This is the second year the gym has been open, but this year we have competed in six competitions and in all six we had either a team or an individual winner. It is unbelievable because there are hundreds and thousands entering every competition.”

Having tasted success last year the Crossfit athletes are keen to travel further afield and build on their success.

“We haven’t been abroad yet but some of the guys are now coming to a level that they could go and push the European athletes,” said Gary. “This year there is a competition in Athens as well as Holland and Sweden and there is quite good prize money. We have a team qualified for quite a high level competition in Dublin this month, with about ten or fifteen thousand on offer in prize money. After that, the biggest competition is the Crossfit games. It is split into different regions and last season we had the second highest gym in Ireland. We do a workout every week for five weeks and you are ranked on a leader board with everyone in your region. It means you can go on and see where you are sitting in relation to others and it lets you know if what you are doing is paying off. Last year three of our members came top in Europe. Raymie Orr came first or second in the world for winning the workouts over the five weeks against 30,000 men his age. We both have the hope of this year or next year qualifying for the Crossfit games in America, and that is where the winners cheque is a quarter of a million. That is the pinnacle of the Crossfit in terms of competition.”

Gary believes that one of the most appealing aspects of Crossfit is its adaptability, with programmes tailored for individual needs.

“It is a misconception that you need to be fit for Crossfit,” he revealed. “I have come across a lot of people who have heard of Crossfit and want to try it but are terrified because they think they have to be Superman before they come in the door. It is anything but. One of our oldest members has just turned 73 and because of her age there are some things she cannot do, but the way Crossfit works everyone can be scaled to what you can do. It’s getting people through that fear factor, and once they try it once they fall in love with it and they see almost immediate results.”