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Chocowinity resident Fred Cherry left Birmingham, AL earlier this week with a second-place medal in the CrossFit competition billed as the Fittest on Earth.

The 66-year-old Cherry finished behind John George (68) of Breckenridge Co. in the 65+ age group after a fifth-place finish in the same competition last summer.

“I was more comfortable with what to expect this time and the set-up was more compact, so all the different exercises were basically in the same area, which helped me,” Cherry said. “I also had more time to rest, and I could watch somebody else in a different age group do the workout before it was my turn. I was more relaxed overall, and I could focus better. I had a shot to win in the last event, but John was just a little better. I’m happy with second after being fifth last year.”

20 athletes from around the world made the finals after several qualifying rounds completed on video from their local gyms. They competed in eight events spread over four days, with the final event on the last day.

Cherry worked with BOCO CrossFit trainers Manny Vidal and Patrick Whaley, who are based at Fitness Unlimited in Washington. He’s been working out several days a week for several months to prepare. His team knew the specific workouts about a week in advance of the finals, which left some time to fine tune.

“Manny and Patrick have had me working on just about everything possible so I could prepare, and they did a great job,” Cherry said. “They were there cheering me on along with my wife, daughter and two grandchildren and they were great during warmups and in between competitions. I’m very grateful for them and it’s to their credit that I finished second.”

The competitive workouts included several rounds of rope climbs, sand- bag cleans, squats, overhead presses, walking lunges with a dumbbell, chest-to-bar pull-ups, clean and jerks, dumbbell snatches, burpees and several others.

Cherry had to run 600 meters, then do five deadlifts of 115 to 175 lbs., run again, then do 10 deadlifts, run again, do 20 deadlifts, run yet again, then finish with 25 deadlifts. After a two-hour rest break, it was on to a different, yet equally grueling, workout.

“There’s a reason they call it the Fittest on Earth competition,” Cherry said. “I was really sore after the second day, but Manny and Patrick helped me stretch, rest and warm up so it wasn’t too bad once I started again.”

Cherry said he improved on his muscle ups from zero to 13 this year and climbed the rope faster. He finished in the top five in six of the eight events and won the event that included three rounds of double-unders, chest-to-bar pull-ups and riding the echo bike in under 11 minutes. Cherry finished in 10:23.

“I did the best I could and improved in several areas, so I left feeling like I can compete with anybody in my age group,” Cherry said. “I’ve rested all week and will ease back into my regular workouts slowly. Open qualifying starts in Feb., so I’ll know after that if I want to do it again next year. I like to compete, so I’ll probably try as long as I stay healthy.”