The British man aiming to take on the world at CrossFit

Harry Lightfoot gave up playing rugby to concentrate on CrossFit full time

Six years ago Harry Lightfoot was ranked 60,606th in the world at CrossFit.

Fast forward to August 2024 and he will compete against the world's best at the CrossFit Games having risen to 17th in the world and the UK's number one.

It's a far cry from the teenager trying some new training as he aimed to improve his rugby.

"I used to always get the boys telling me off for trying to do more CrossFit and trying to enter competitions," the 25-year-old told BBC South West as he prepares to head to Texas in the summer.

"I remember coaches and friends of mine sat me down and said 'look, you're going to have to take one of these seriously in a minute'.

"Then lockdown hit, so no rugby, I was just training all the time then and we had some online qualifiers going on in the world. It was at that point where I decided to give it a go and then was approached by a lot of people saying 'you could really make something out of this'."

Lightfoot's rise up the rankings has been unstoppable since he decided to train full-time in the sport.

As well as the UK's number one he is also ranked in Europe's top 10 and was one of 10 men from Europe to gain a place in the field of 40 at the CrossFit Games.

It is a sport that has taken off in the past few years - mixing elements of cardiovascular exercises, gymnastics, weightlifting and plyometrics - to become what its exponents say is a true measure of fitness.

"We're probably doing six hours of training a day," Lightfoot said of the regime that had earned him a place in the world's elite competition.

"That will be split across two training sessions - a morning one that's a little bit shorter and then an afternoon session that's a little bit longer that might have some skill pieces or Olympic weightlifting followed by some conditioning.

"That's spread across five days with an extra active recovery day, which is a little less volume and not as loadbearing on your joints, and then one rest stay in there - so it's quite a bit of training."

Athletes compete in a varied array of exercises at a Crossfit Games

Qualifying for the CrossFit Games has taken over Lightfoot's life - not only in terms of time but also moving home.

He has left Cornwall and moved to Worcester to train with his coach Mike Allen and Aimee Cringle - the only British woman to qualify for August's event in Fort Worth.

"I put my chips on the table and told everyone what my goal was," he said.

"It has been a goal for a while, but there was more light at the end of the tunnel this year - we felt I was in a good place that I could competitively go into these regionals.

"You're not in control of the outcome, it's how you execute on the day. But just to have my place for the games was just relief in one of the most stacked, if not the most stacked field in the world, which is Europe - it was it was an unbelievable feeling."

Come August, Lightfoot knows that he will need to be at the top of his game not just with the aim of succeeding, but also just trying to compete.

"It prides itself on being constantly varied so you have no idea what you're going up against," he said.

"We're just left guessing, so you have to train in almost everything.

"You have to be really well-rounded, you can't be very good at one thing and then poor at another because it just doesn't look good on the leaderboard and you're punished for that.

"To be the top 40 in the world, just to be there, is quite an achievement.

"But for me it's not like the job's done there. It's not qualify and that's it, I'm going there to compete, so I'm going to go and push for the highest placing I can."