James Newbury has had a good run so far in the 2020 CrossFit Open. However, this may have come to a halt, as he recently suffered some pretty serious injuries.
Newbury is one of the fittest athletes in the world, competing at the CrossFit Games. He earned fifth place competing in the 2019 season, and was off to a good start to the 2020 season. At the time of writing, he is ranked ninth overall, in the CrossFit Open leaderboards.
However, it seems that James Newbury has suffered a serious set back recently. In a lengthy post to his Instagram, he explains that he was on the receiving end of a bad bike accident. As a result, he suffered a minor break to his back, as well as a punctured left lung.
This was his post:
“Not the most ideal place to spend your 29th. I’ve been holding out the last couple days mentioning anything but figured I might as well “break” the news and I’ll preface it with “I am fine” 😊
Over the weekend I had a freak accident coming off a mountain Bike awkwardly head first into a tree, yes not the fastest way down the mountain that’s for sure. I’ve come away lucky with only a handful of breaks through T-Spine 2 & 3 processes and 7+8th rib. I also coped a gash in the left lung leaving it a little worse for wear leaking some air.”
Despite this, Newbury says this is not the end to his 2020 CrossFit Open Season
“This is NOT he end of the world nor is it the end of my season, it’s just a minor inconvenience that will need some attention. The doctor said “If you are going to break you back you’ve done it the best way possible for a speedy recovery” so this gives me confidence.
He then explains how the accident happened.
How it happened I’m sure is the big question and the basic answer is I just fell awkwardly. I came around a corner not at a crazy speed and washed out the front wheel on some loose rocks, locked onto the breaks and went over the handle bars hitting the base of the tree with my head. Then I flipped and my mid back jarred a protruding branch. Luckily I was wearing a darn good helmet because the docs said it 100% saved me.
Now I know I’ll get asked why did I put myself if a situation where I could get hurt with the season upon us? My answer is I don’t regret anything. If I wrap myself in cotton wool and deprive myself of things I enjoy then none of it is worth it for me. I need to be happy and I need to be sharing exciting experiences with loved ones for me to stay focused in other areas of my life and that’s exactly what I was doing. This is life!
I’ll now be “working IN” as much as possible to allow the bones to heal well so I can get back to another thing I love which is training and competing (yes for the 2020 season).”
This is quite the setback for James Newbury. Nevertheless, he seems to be in good spirits, and still hopeful for a return in the Open. Time will tell if he is able to heal up in time for the 20.4, later this week.
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