It was apparent early on that the athletes who could remain steady on the rings upside down were the ones who performed the strongest. The athletes who struggled keeping their legs straight were the ones who struggled with the ring handstand push ups the most. Fraser was asked after the event about getting through the ring handstand push ups and he said the trick was, "Keeping a cool head. I think we were all getting a lot of no reps. Just break it into smaller steps and keep your movements solid."

Going into the event, Christian Lucero was expected to do well with his strong performance in the Regional workout of strict handstand push ups and strict muscle ups. He won the second heat, and took second overall. "There was no excuse for me to take anything less than top five." He said after the event.

Cole Sager knocked out the time set by Lucero with a comeback in the third heat. He slowly widened his lead, at one point being 30 reps ahead of the person in third place. Sager hit the gas at the end and beat Lucero's time by two seconds, taking the event win. "I don't worry too much...I just go out and give my best." He said. He sits in 12th place overall.

In the final heat eyes were on Mat Fraser and Ben Smith. Last year, it was an upside down movement that contributed to knocking Fraser out of first and Smith into it. Smith fell behind early in the event, finishing 19th overall. Fraser had the lead in the beginning, but a series of no reps and it wasn't long before Josh Bridges passed him up. Bridges was sitting in sixth on the leaderboard, so a strong finish in the event would bring him back in contention for a podium spot. Bridges hasn't stood on the podium since his rookie year. Fraser caught him on the overhead squats and took the heat win with a time of 14:44 for fourth overall. Bridges finished seventh overall and sits fourth on the leaderboard after the event.

When asked about thoughts on the next event, Fraser said, "I try not to guess. Waste of time."

Leaderboard (Men):

1. (750) Mathew Fraser
2. (570) Ben Smith
3. (550) Patrick Vellner
4. (544) Josh Bridges
5. (526) Scott Panchik
6. (506) Alex Anderson
7. (496) Brent Fikowski
8. (494) Jacob Heppner
9. (494) Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson
10. (490) Travis Mayer
11. (484) Alex Vigneault
12. (470) Cole Sager
13. (428) Noah Ohlsen
14. (416) Travis Williams
15. (412) Lukas Högberg
16. (396) Marcus Filly
17. (382) Samuel Kwant
18. (380) Rasmus Wisbech Andersen
19. (366) Garret Fisher
20. (356) Christian Lucero
21. (356) Ben Stoneberg
22. (354) Rob Forte
23. (336) Lukas Esslinger
24. (328) Jacob Anderson
25. (324) James Newbury
26. (320) Albert-Dominic Larouche
27. (312) Sam Dancer
28. (304) Zak Carchedi
29. (300) Lucas Parker
30. (284) Sean Sweeney
31. (282) Adrian Mundwiler
32. (281) Spencer Hendel
33. (278) Logan Collins
34. (248) Gary Helmick
35. (240) Khan Porter
36. (240) Roy Gamboa
37. (240) Mitchell Sinnamon
38. (220) Joseph Guesnier
39. (160) Zeke Grove
40. (142) Jonne Koski

Continue to Event 10 Recap (Women)
Continue to Event 10 Recap (Men)