Wakefield Crossfit competitor Paul Bedford taking on best in world in USA

The 38-year-old co-owner of Wakefield Crossfit, a fitness community of over 350 members that he started with his close friend in 2013, is now competing internationally and recently showed the way he is progressing with a top six finish in a big event in the USA.

Crossfit has been Paul’s life for nine years now with his personal goal to be good enough to qualify for the Crossfit Games.

In his quest to reach the Games he recently entered the annual Wodapalooza Crossfit competition (WZA) in Miami, Florida – an annual four-day functional fitness festival.

The WZA was first established in 2012 and has since developed into one of the largest fitness festivals in the world and a major Crossfit competition with thousands of athletes from around the world taking part.

To get through to the event Paul was required to complete five qualifiers last October with each filmed and submitted for professional judge evaluation.

Thousands of competitors from across the world took part with more than 300 in Paul’s allocated category (Masters men 35-39). The top 25 were invited to compete in Miami and Paul finished sixth in his qualifier and was one of only two British men who made it through.

After a bout of covid in December, which severely impacted his lung capacity, up to a week before he was due to fly out he was still unsure whether he would be able to go. But the decision was made to have a go and he faced competing in six events across three days, covering all areas of fitness.

In event one at Bayside Chipper the Wakefield man finished fifth and he followed by coming 11th in the next competition at MIA Bar Complex.

Event three involved a row, swim and run and Paul was 12th despite having limited previous swimming experience and none in open water. This was the competition he feared most, but he was pleased with his efforts and led after the row.

A 14th place followed in the Celebrate 10 event before an improved fifth in the WZA OC Remix.

After five events Paul was sitting comfortably in sixth place and looking forward to the final event which should have been a strong one for him, giving him a great opportunity to move up the leaderboard.

Unfortunately, due to a storm the event had to be delayed and there was then only time for the elite competitors to finish their events, leaving Paul to finish the competition in sixth.

Despite being personally disappointed with his performance as he knew he had the ability to finish higher. Paul had done well to even get to the event and his family and all the members at Wakefield Crossfit are proud of him, with the whole team glued to YouTube watching his events across the whole weekend.

Next stop for Paul is the qualifiers for the Crossfit Games with the Crossfit Open starting this month.