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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, May 22, 2015 | 28 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Hurts so good by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff | photo by Eric Riehl -- Oakville Beaver Courtney Bowman gave up her childhood dream for CrossFit and discovered an even stronger passion "It's one per cent of the athletes from the open qualifier that go through to regionals," says Bowman's coach Andy O'Rourke from Cordis CrossFit. "The cut is fairly Draconian." · · · CrossFit may be Draconian, but Bowman found the sport through the pursuit of a childhood dream -- the dream of many children -- joining the circus. A competitive gymnast and power tumbler, Bowman auditioned for Cirque du Soleil in 2008 and was added to its roster. To keep her skills sharp while waiting for an opening in a show , Bowman attended a circus school in Stoney Creek. She also began using CrossFit to cross train. Bowman began to spend increasingly more time at gym than the circus school. Then she entered her first competition. "It was a team competition and we finished first and I got the bug," Bowman said. "The circus didn't have that competition aspect and coming from that athletic background, I was missing that fire." CrossFit competitions test an athlete's strength, endurance, speed and balance through a series of workouts. Athletes must perform as many repetitions of given tasks in a defined time. For the open qualifiers, workouts are posted online every week and athletes have one week to perform them and post their best score. At other competitions, the athletes often won't find out what they will be tested on until an hour before. The workouts change from event to event so CrossFit athletes never know what they will be facing. It can range from the routine -- pull-ups, weight lifting and box jumps -- to the unusual -- walking handstands. "You have to be very well-rounded," Bowman said. "You can't have holes in your game." · · · When Bowman started this year's online qualifier, she wasn't even thinking about regionals. But after finishing second in the East Region in the first of five workouts, she realized it was a goal within her reach. That first workout included 15 toe to bar (as the name suggests, the athlete hangs from a bar and must lift their feet to touch the bar above their head), 10 deadlifts of 55 lbs. and 10 snatch lifts of 55 lbs. Bowman completed seven circuits in nine minutes. Immediately after finishing, Bowman had to clean and jerk as much weight as she could, and lifted 205 lbs. She finished in the top 30 in each of the next three weeks and despite slipping to 98th in the final week, she finished 17th overall to claim one of the spots in the regionals. "It's a huge deal to make it to regionals," Bowman said. "I never know if I'll be going back so I just want to do my best and have fun with it." The 25-year-old said paying closer attention to nutrition has led to an improvement in her performance. But her coaches point to other factors for her success. "She's been very consistent and very dedicated to her training," O'Rourke said. "CrossFit rewards people who are quick to adapt and learn things on the fly ." "Having a positive attitude is important and Courtney's usually got a smile on her face," said Andrew Schizas. "And it's hard to keep a smile on your face when you're doing this." Especially when the hurt is trying so hard to wipe the smile off your face. It is a sport that is constantly changing, always pushing and expanding its own boundaries. There is only one constant in CrossFit. "The hurt," says Courtney Bowman. The hurt is what tells every athlete they've had enough. It tells their bodies to stop. It tells them, you can't do this. It's up to the athlete to ignore the hurt. "It sucks during the workout," Bowman says, "but at the end of it, when you look back and see what you've done, it feels pretty good." It feels especially good when you are rewarded for your efforts. Bowman will get her payback for fighting through the hurt this weekend when she competes in the Reebok CrossFit Games East Regional in Hartford, Conn. Bowman earned her spot through the open online qualifier. How tough is that? Well, approximately 270,000 athletes registered. Only the top 20 men and women in each of the 17 regions across the world advance to regionals. It was already a great week for Dan Dawson before he even picked up a lacrosse stick. Dawson and his wife Alyse celebrated the birth of their first child, Theo, last Friday afternoon. Their son arrived two weeks early, but his timing proved to be impeccable. A little more than 24 hours later, Dawson was back on the lacrosse floor in Rochester trying to help the Knighthawks return to the National Lacrosse League final. "I've never been part of something so emotional," Dan Dawson Dawson said. "It was hard to play the next day, but more from lack of sleep. I slept in a chair at the hospital which was a little different than having the king-sized bed I have to myself in the hotel on the road. But I wouldn't have traded it for anything." If Dawson was a little sleep deprived, it didn't show in Saturday's NLL semifinal. In the final minute of a 9-9 game against the Toronto Rock, Dawson won a battle for a loose ball, muscled his way between two Rock defenders then dove through the air to tuck the ball past Toronto goalie Brandon Miller for the winning goal with 37 seconds to play. If there hadn't been enough good news, T uesday Dawson was named to the Canadian team for the FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, which will be held in Syracuse, N.Y. in September. Dawson will be joined on the Canadian team by three other Oakville players, including his brother Paul, who is also a teammate on the Knighthawks. Jordan MacIntosh and Chris Corbeil will also suit up for Canada. All four learned the game in the Oakville Minor Lacrosse system. "Oakville minor lacrosse is getting up there as one of the best organizations in Ontario, if not Canada," Dawson said. "We're all Oakville Hawks for life and if you see all the A championships they're winning, it's something to be proud of." Dawson will look to keep things rolling on a positive note. Rochester plays in Toronto Saturday . With a win, the Knighthawks will again advance to the NLL final, where Rochester will be looking for an unprecedented fourth consecutive title. --Herb Garbutt, Oakville Beaver staff Oh baby! What a week for Dan Dawson