Roy Gamboa-ECC Qualifier Week 1

By: Lauryn Lax 

Roy Gamboa from the South Central Region is a man on a mission. He is fighting his way back to make his third appearance at the CrossFit Regionals in 2015, and, hopefully, his second appearance at the CrossFit Games (former 2013 South Central Games competitor).

 

In the mean time, Gamboa’s first place finish last week, during Week 1 of Coach Ben Bergeron’s Kill Cliff East Coast Championships’ Online Qualifier, proved he is doing something right. 

 

The Kill Cliff East Coast Championships is an elite individual and team competition, held at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston the weekend of January 24th and 25th. While many of the competitors for the event were invited by Bergeron prior to the Qualifier, several others have the opportunity to earn a spot on the roster through the three week online competition. 

 

Gamboa is one of them. 

 

In fact, Gamboa said his training this past year, in particular, has been the most focused that it’s ever been. 

 

 “I have made my training geared towards strengthening my actual weakness and not about competing for a time or to beat anyone. This year has been about making me the best all around athlete I can possibly be and knowing and pushing MY limits,” Gamboa said.
 

After a brutal upset on Day 3 of the 2014 South Central Regional last year, when he was knocked out of 1st place to 5th place, (and one-point away from finishing within the top 3), Gamboa said he walked away from the Freeman Collesium “humbled.”

 

“Champions learn from failures and keep grinding. Last year’s upset has made me hungry, like I was when first began CrossFit. After making the Games my first year, I felt there was a bunch of pressure to make it back 2014. So, I did too much trying to make it back and end up learning a hard and great lesson about over training. Unfortunately I had to experience that at Regionals Day 3, but I’m glad I found out eventually,” Gamboa said. 
 

While there are still two more week left before the ECC Qualifier comes to a close, Gamboa is looking forward to the potential of competing in Bergeron’s elite competition, hosted in Boston, Mass.
 

“I am not really one for competing all year round. Ya kind of get burned out with the Open and Regionals, so the ECC is the only competition I've tried out. The owner of my gym (Aaron Wesson) really respects Ben Bergeron and informed me that the ECC would be something good for me to try this offseason. So, my offseason needed some excitement and I decided this would be the perfect competition to bring that excitement,” Gamboa said.