You win the Reebok CrossFit Games, you get to call yourself the Fittest Man or Woman on Earth. Any objections?

Let’s be honest: there aren’t too many sports where you want to see your competitors do well. But CrossFit IS a sport with a difference, taking the not-so-humble gym workout to Olympian levels. And encouraging a collegiate atmosphere that’s quite rare in modern sport – and extremely compelling to watch as a spectator.

But it’s something that you can’t fully pick up on from the TV coverage (this year on ESPN). Because you don’t see it so much on the winners’ faces – it’s more evident as the backmarkers complete their various assignments, while the winners are being interviewed on screen ... Crowds cheering everyone home as if they were champions. Which they all kind of are ... given the punishing regimes they were asked  to complete over four days at the recent CrossFit Games in Hermosa Beach, California – the sport’s world championships.

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For those who have followed our CrossFit series here for the last 12 months, there was special interest as we followed the fortunes of our two “coaches”, Kara Webb and Rob Forte. They didn’t win, but they sure did their country proud with their Herculean efforts.

The competition started on the Wednesday with a kind of “biathlon” – in this case an ocean swim and two-mile board paddle. Right up the Aussies’ alley! Kara won the women’s, while Rob was among an armada of Aussies who put themselves in the frame to win. Because they could at least swim! There followed three days of almost-obscene effort – the lugging of multiple sandbags; gymnastics endurance events; running races wearing weighted body armour; insane repetitions and combinations of heavy, heavy lifts; crazy climbs, squats, bikes, rows, obstacle courses, all designed to test every element of an athlete’s ability to cope under extreme physical stress.

Last year, after leading into the final stages, Kara succumbed to injury that cruelled her chances – but this year she definitely showed that she more than belongs in this elite company. It just seems to be the technical aspects of the inverted exercises that throw her, with the handstand walk and handstand push-ups finding her out and dropping her down to a final fifth placing.

Let’s say that again: FIFTH. In the world! BIG.

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In case you were wondering, Iceland came first, in the incredible form of Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir. And guess who came second? An Australian rookie: Tia-Clair Toomey, from Gladstone in Queensland. She even won the Rookie of the Year award. She cried when she found out, because she was afraid she wouldn’t finish. That’s sport, folks.

Rob was again a picture of consistency throughout the event, finishing a more than creditable 23rd. Another Aussie, Ben Garard, managed a terrific 15th. The winner, at his seventh try, was 25-year-old Ben Smith from the good ole USA.

They’re all threatening to return next year, joining the half-million people around the world who went through the qualification process trying to get a start. Gotta be in it ...