Spencer Panchik, Karin Freyova, Julia Kato & Redouane El Ghadouini Receive ‘Special Invites’ to Dubai Fitness Championship

Yesterday, we reported that organizers of the Dubai Fitness Championship changed the qualification process without telling anyone. Multiple places said that the top 30 from the online qualifier would be invited to compete at the in-person finals in December.

However, now that the online qualifier is over and the leaderboard has been finalized, only the top 28 from the online qualifier will receive an invite. The remaining two men and two women will be filled via a “special invite” from DFC.

Those athletes are…Karin Freyova and Julia Kato on the women’s side. For the men, Spencer Panchik and Redouane El Ghadouini. Who?

Freyova is the reigning two-time winner of the Dubai Fitness Championship. Kato, who qualified for the 2024 CrossFit Games, finished 18th at last year’s DFC. Both women are CrossFit Games veterans and some of the top athletes in the sport.

Spencer Panchik is also a CrossFit Games veteran, although he missed out on qualifying at this year’s CrossFit Games. The last time he competed at Dubai was in 2019, when it was the Dubai CrossFit Championship during the Sanctionals era.

That leaves us with Redouane El Ghadouini. Not gonna lie…I have no idea who this is. El Ghadouini does have competition experience, including some competition wins in the Middle East. He has won the Seashore Phoenix Games the past two years. He won the ELFIT CrossFit Championship in 2021 and 2022. He is also the self-proclaimed 2023 and 2024 Fittest Arab on Earth.

El Ghadouini is from Morocco and thus competes in the Africa region for the CrossFit Games season. He did qualify for Semifinals in 2022 where he placed 18th at the CrossFit Fittest in Cape Town. He failed to qualify for Semifinals in 2023 and did not compete in the 2024 CrossFit Games season.

Oh, and apparently he is a PRVN Fitness athlete and coached by Joey Tortora.

It is unclear why El Ghadouini was selected to receive one of the special invites for DFC. Based on posts by Roman Khrennikov it appears that he was going to receive an invite, but his hip injury forced him to withdraw. 

So with the special invites, the field of 30 men and 30 women is set. You can see the full field on Competition Corner. There are some big names in the field including Gabi Migala, Jamie Simmonds, Kristin Holte, Elisa Fuliano, Luka Djukic, Moritz Fiebig, Jake Douglas and several other CrossFit Games veterans and top Semifinals athletes.