Crossfit Open WOD 14.2: Talayna Fortunato vs. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet

The matchup for the live announcement of 14.2 has been announced and you can bet that these two headliners will not disappoint. Together these two boast six appearances at the Games, five of which ended with top 10 overall finishes including one podium. Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet are no strangers to the Crossfit spotlight; in fact both of them were also a part of last year’s live announcements. Fortunato was teamed against Kristan Clever in 13.3 (150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 muscleups) and despite jumping out to an early lead, Clever got the best of Fortunato by four reps. Leblanc-Bazinet was pitted against eventual 2013 Games Champion Samantha Briggs in 13.5 (wicked Fran ladder) and she destroyed Briggs when she was able to advance to the 12 minute round, winning by 69 reps. With two very solid veterans like this, we are sure to get a great throw down.

Here’s the tale of the tape:

Talayna Fortunato is 33 years old and reports herself as 5’7 and 152 pounds. Fortunato started CF in 2010 where she went to the Sectionals (similar to Regionals now) and she just missed the cut of going to the Games in 2011 with a fourth place finish at Regionals (after winning the Open in the South East). In 2012 she’d establish herself as a true player, finishing 17th overall in the Open, handily winning her region with top five finishes across the board and capping off the season with a third place overall finish at the Games. In 2013, she admittedly felt the pressure and expectation to not only repeat her success but improve upon it and at times her results suffered under the weight. She’d finish 45th overall in the Open, again handily win her region, but her first couple of days at the Games were disappointing (by her lofty standards). She averaged 14th place finishes for the first nine events before mounting an inspiring rally on the final day that ended with a trio of top three finishes culminating with a win in the final event. Her rally would land her in 5th place overall, just six points out of her second consecutive podium finish. Fortunato has been very busy the last couple of months competing in three of the biggest ‘off season’ competitions in the country, including two of them in back to back weeks. She stayed at the top of the leaderboards in each of them though, collecting an 8th overall, a 2nd place and a 1st place. At the East Coast Championships, her win, she beat out other big name females like Lindsey Valenzuela, Stacie Tovar and Rebecca Voigt. Her second place finish at Wodapalooza left her looking up at only Sam Briggs. At the OC Throwdown she struggled through finishing eighth. Fortunato has her own blog in which she speaks very candidly about her training and at times her mindset going into, during and after a competition. She wrote after the OC Throwdown she was thrown off by not being in the “A” heat with Valenzuela, Julie Foucher, Briggs and Leblanc-Bazinet among others. The first event was also a pool swim, which she acknowledges as a significant weakness. She’s also talked in the past about not training for the Open, but instead training to peak either at Regionals or the Games, which could be why she’s not normally among the leaders during the Open WODs. She did participate in more ‘off season’ comps than normal this year though so it’ll be interesting to see how that effects this year’s Open. Finally, if you don’t read her blog, it’s well worth your time (more than this one quite frankly) and you can check it out here.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet is 25 years old and reports herself as 5’2 and 130 pounds. CLB is one of the most tenured CF Games’ athletes in the world. She has been to the Games every year since 2010 and her only finish outside the top 10 was this past year when she finished 16th. Her first two years at the Games saw her finish 9th and 8th (2010 and 2011, respectively). In 2012 she came roaring out of the Gates with a 5th place finish in the Open and a second place finish at Regionals, despite finishing in the top 2 in all but one WOD (and the other one was a 4th place). At the Games that year she got off to a really slow start averaging a 25th place finish in the first five WODs, but from then on she was a beast with eight top 10 finishes in the final ten WODs, including a win in the final event. The late surge landed her at 6th overall, her best finish at the Games. In 2013, CBL started even faster, finishing 2nd overall in the Open, absolutely dominating the competition at Regionals (five wins and two second place finishes), but she’d again struggle early on at the Games. In the first seven events she’d average 28th place finishes, including five straight finishes of 30th or worse. Just like you’d expect a serious competitor is expected to do though, she rallied and in the final five workouts she recorded four top fives and 6th place finish. Her late rally, while very admirable, still left her just 16th overall. She’ll no doubt be hungry in 2014 to prove she’s one of the absolute top Crossfitters in the world.

Head to Head

With two years of Open, Regionals and Games there’s a mountain of data to compare, so let’s boil it down to wins and losses. In 50 ‘similar’ WODs that these two have done in the past two years (Open, Regionals and Games), CBL has posted a better score or time in 30 of them. If you’re interested in taking it a step farther, the real domination between these two has been in the Open and Regionals rounds where CBL has beaten Fortunato’s times/score in 18 of 23 WODS (they also tied once), including 9 of the 10 Open WODs. Considering we’re talking about who will win this Open WOD, that’s a hard number to ignore. You’re probably wondering why this domination hasn’t led to CBL finishing ahead of Fortunato at either of the last two Games, and the answer is consistency. In head to head matchups, they’re almost even at the Games (15 to 12, in favor of Fortunato), but the difference lies in the details. In the 27 events that these two have completed in the last two years at the Games, Fortunato has only been outside the top 20 three times. CBL on the other hand, in the same 27 events, has been outside the top 20 ten times, including seven times outside the top 30. Basically, her bad finishes are really, really bad.

Prediction Time

Well I feel like I’ve already said way too much so I’ll make this short and sweet. After looking at the history of these two, I’d say if this were the Games, I’d bet on Talayna, but this isn’t the Games. Camille has been truly dominant in the Open the past two years and there’s no way I’m betting against her in an Open WOD. I was right last week, picking Garret Fisher, so I’ll shoot for two in a row with CBL.