Ballito’s Emma Morgan shines at international ELFIT CrossFit championships
Designed to target every possible muscle group, the three days of exercise tested athletes' mental strength as much as their physical endurance.
If you thought playing soccer in the Middle East in November was a bad idea (and it is), imagine trying to do CrossFit!
Ballito’s Emma Morgan (30) showed unbelievable mettle to jump, lift, run, swim, cycle and endure her way to fourth place in the ELFIT CrossFit Championships last weekend.
Held in Cairo, Egypt, the event brought some of the best CrossFit athletes from across the world to compete over three days of brutal fitness challenges.
“It was very tough for sure, but doing CrossFit means leaning into the pain! It’s about seeing what your body is able to accomplish,” said Morgan.
Athletes competed in three challenges per day, amassing points by number of repetitions of a certain exercise, weight lifted or speed through the course.
“On Friday, to start us off, they took us to a desert outside Cairo where we ran a hilly 5km in really hot weather. It’s times like that when you think you cannot believe this is only the first challenge of the day,” she said.
But of course, at this level of competition, there is no choice but to carry on pushing until the finish line or the body gives up.
“I went into the final challenge on Sunday and placed second, but unfortunately just really reached a limit and ended up missing bronze by three points.”
Still, by anyone’s measure, beating out 35 other elite female athletes in her first international competition was a fantastic result.
Morgan first got into CrossFit when studying at Rhodes University, initially working as a personal trainer after graduation.
Photo: ELFIT.
Soon she fell in love with the sport, spending four months coaching in Hong Kong before returning to KZN.
“I worked at a gym in Durban and then just decided to go all in and opened CrossFit Ballito with my husband, James, in 2019.”
Since then it has been strength-to-strength for Morgan, who hopes to compete in more competitions soon.
Taking on Cairo was certainly an impressive first step.
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