Memorable weekend for Greene sisters

It was a bronze-ridden weekend for the Greene sisters.

First, younger sister Rebekah finished third at the national cross-country championships in Upper Hutt.

Rebekah, of Dunedin, was also third in last year's event, so it was a good performance in tough conditions.

Then older sister Jamie finished third in the individual women's category at the CrossFit Games in Winconsin.

Jamie is a trainer based in Abu Dhabi, where she has been since 2014.

She lined up in the CrossFit Games against about 130 competitors over four days of competition, which tests strength and fitness in many different categories.

This is more than a run in the park.

There is very tough testing of an athlete's fitness, as all parts of the body are under stress.

The opening event consisted of four 400m runs, three rope climbs not using legs and seven squats and snatches.

Jamie (28) had to survive a cut of athletes as the competition went for four days.

After the first day, the top 75 athletes were left in, followed by a cut to the top 40 and then just 10 left.

The athletes have no idea what they have to do until just before the event.

Jamie had finished seventh in 2017 and 11th last year, so to get on the podium had been the goal at the start of the competition.

She was lying fourth going into the final event and needed a big performance in the event which was based around weightlifting.

Competitors had to lift a bar 60 times in a mixture of clean and jerk and snatches and also do 30 muscle-ups. Jamie recorded the second-best time to push into third. The event was won by Australian Tia-Clair Toomey.

Jamie had been aiming to make the top three so she was ecstatic to go that well and be able to wave the New Zealand flag during the victory ceremony. Her mother, Anita, said it was a great weekend for her daughters and she felt especially proud.

A former gymnast and Otago Spirit rugby player, Jamie is coming back to New Zealand at Christmas and will be married in Queenstown in January.

She will marry fellow CrossFit Games athlete Elliot Simmonds, from the United Kingdom.

He finished 19th in the open men's category.

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