May was a busy month in OCR, with more athletes traveling across the pond to the US for the Spartan 3k series, another event in the Savage Pro Series, and Elite competitions across Europe, include the Hyrox World Championships in Manchester.
Topping our Female leaderboard, without a doubt is Kris Rugloski (USA, 1). Just Kris doing Kris things. Amongst others, most notably, topping the podium at the Big Bear Spartan 3k, taking a red-eye to Maryland, and taking the top spot on the Savage pro podium. An exciting race was run there by all athletes, with Alex Walker (USA, 6) leading for the majority of the race before being over taken by Rugloski, doing the impossible. Topping the Savage leaderboard, it seems unlikely anyone can topple her now.
Also at Savage was Ryan Kempson (USA, 3) who took the gold, without much apparent competition it seemed certain, however a huge recognition here must be given to Joseph Cotto who placed second, taking a huge amount of time off his previous two race results at Savage.
Switzerland’s Manuel Dufaux (CH, 7) held steady at number 7 after taking 3rd at Spartan Big Bear 3k, and with that result taking the top spot in the NA Spartan Elite Series Leaderboard. Tyler Veerman (USA, 4) took second at Big Bear, landing him the 2nd spot on the Spartan NA leaderboard.
Other European athletes making an appearance are Ida Mathilde Steensgaard (Den, 2) for her performances at Spartan Big Bear and Nordic Race. Fellow Danes Leon Kofoed (DEN, 5) and Jonas Drescher (Den, 8) who together with Ida took 3rd place in the OCRWC co-ed team event 2022, also made an appearance, both competing at Nordic Race and the Danish Elite Series.
All eyes on French athlete David Labrosse (FRA, 10) who had an impressive return to competitive OCR after a severe injury, with two top podiums at Zadvoort Sprint European Series, and Carcassonne Spartan Super. Also placing 1st at Carcassonne was Karin Karlsson (SWE, 10), who also competed at Toughest Malmo. Whilst she was unable to compete in the elite wave, it’s worth noting the time she achieved would have placed her 3rd if she had been able to.
