Ryan Kent sets fastest time of the season

Many people expected Ryan Kent to dominate the North American Hyrox Championships a few weeks ago. And, indeed, in the early part of the race, Kent was flying. However, Michael Sandbach, an athlete incredibly strong at the front-half of the race due to his size and strength that match up well with ERGs and sleds, made Kent work increasingly hard to keep his lead. I would also add that Kent had only raced once since the World Championships and was coming off a Deka season, which is a much shorter sport. In a race Kent was leading, he ended up coming 7th and spoke via Social Media about being angry and disappointed.

Kent’s response in Houston was to set the fastest time of the season to date, and the second fastest time in Hyrox history: an incredible 56:52. After the event, Kent said: “The only way for me to truly get over what happened in Chicago was to put myself right back in the arena. That came with some anxiety though. I remained confident in what I could do, but the thought of history repeating itself was definitely in the back of my mind. But we faced those demons head on and overcame it in a big way.”

Rich Ryan shows up with 21st fastest time of the season

Although Rich Ryan will be targeting the Elite 15, he showed up to Houston and put in a solid time of 1:00:02. A year ago, this time would have comfortably got you inside the Elite 15 he is chasing – today though, the times are tumbling. Again, I would point out that Rich has only had one individual Hyrox race this season and is also coming off a Deka season. There’s another 16 races, 2 in the USA, so he has time to qualify for Manchester’s Elite.

Kent, Ryan & Schadegg continue to elevate each other

I follow these three guys on social media and often see them competing together. It’s clear they are good friends, fierce competitors and thrive when all three of them are able to take to the floor together and push one another.

Camilla Massa just misses out on Elite 15

Camilla’s time was the 19th fastest of the season, putting her just outside of that Elite 15. She’ll fancy her chances at securing an Elite 15 spot before the end of the season though, and is working hard on boosting her strength, which she sees as the weakness holding her back from a possible top 5 time.

Nail biting finish in the Women’s Pro!

In case you missed it, there was just one second between Camilla Massa and Belle MacFarlane. Belle made up significant time on the final run and wall balls, to take it right down to the wire. Worth noting, this was Belle’s debut and she had a really rough time on the sled pull (7 minutes, 24 seconds), so if she can shave some time off there (Camilla was 4 minutes, 23 seconds for comparison), she could easily find herself in that Elite 15.

The Magidas take mixed doubles

Europe has the Hogans (Dena and Tom Hogan) and now America has the Magidas. David Magida, North American Champion, and his wife, Kait Magida, took first place overall in the Mixed Doubles with an impressive time of 01:00:37. Having spoken to David, I know that he loves the idea of competing more often with his wife once he decides to take a step back from individual competition. If he and Kait decide to go down that path, it looks like they’ll be a force to be reckoned with!

Alexander Roncevic retakes ‘fastest Hyrox of the season’ crown

Not even a day had passed before Alexander Roncevic took back the ‘fastest time of the season’ crown from Ryan Kent. Like Kent, there were many backing Roncevic going into the North American Championships. Alexander had dominated the race in Europe and looked every bit capable of taking the title in Chicago and, indeed, Worlds in Manchester. Every race is different though, and Alexander ended up taking (a still impressive) 4th place in Chicago.

Truth be told, Chicago wasn’t all that important of a race for Alex. He could have stayed home. His win in the European Championships has guaranteed him a spot in Manchester’s World Championship’s Elite 15 race. Similarly, there was no real need to race in Vienna. Of course, Alexander is from Austria and so perhaps he just wanted to experience the atmosphere and perform in front of his family/friends. But, he could have gone 6 and a half minutes slower and still won the race with time to spare…

This huge win and his incredible time of 56:13 shows the athlete and competitor Alexander Roncevic is. I can’t wait to see what he does at Worlds!

Mirjam Von Rohr wins AGAIN

Since the European Championships, Mirjam has won both races she has entered in dominant fashion. In fact, like Alex, she won this race by over 6 minutes (Stuttgart was almost 8 minutes!). Mirjam is a station specialist, having the best time on every single station in Vienna. That said, she has recently linked up with one of the best runners in the game (Tim Wenisch of T.M. Training) and they’re working on improving this area of Mirjam’s game too. If Mirjam does improve her running (and, honestly, it’s already very good!), she could well make podium at Worlds.

Anne Stellaard continues impressive step-up to Pro

Anne Stellaard is a World Record Holder in the 35-39 Hyrox Open Division. She has an impressive time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 8 seconds. More recently, Anne has been taking on Pro Hyrox events and placing secondl, behind only Mirjam, will show her that she’s certainly capable of becoming a contender in the Pros should she wish to make her home there.

Affiliate-Cup style competition to debut at Cologne

In Hyrox, there has never been any rules about what relationship the members of a relay team must have in terms of where they train. In fact, you’ve always been able to compete with anyone, from any gym, from any country across the world. At the FIBO in Cologne, Hyrox is debuting a new FITTEST GYM CHAMPIONSHIP. Gyms from all over the world will compete for a new Fittest Gym title. Gyms can start as teams of 4 men, 4 women or mixed (2 men, 2 women).  There will be no age division in this competition. No qualification is required – it’s an OPEN competition for everyone. Significant prizes are up for grabs, including free Hyrox Affiliation and up to 500 Euros of equipment too! More here.

Ten Thousand sign America’s top Hyrox Males

Ten Thousand, a clothing company that is well known for its athlete-led designs, have signed some of Hyrox’s biggest names, including: David Magida, Dylan Scott, Rich Ryan, and Ryan Kent. It’s great to see some of our most successful athletes getting contracts with successful brands. Ten Thousand could well become Hyrox’s NoBull!

Sandbach vs Kent: UK vs US Duel dominates early race

The early part of the race was led by Ryan Kent, who many had as the favourite going into Chicago, leading the race, with Michael Sandbach right on his shoulder.

Michael is impressively strong in the early stations, the ergs and sleds are a real strength of his, and it looked as if perhaps Kent was working a little harder than he’d like to keep ahead of Sandbach on these stations. The sled, especially, saw the two of them going about 2 and a half lengths unbroken!

So, whereas Kent had the advantage on the runs, you could see the stations draining him and by the row, Kent had fallen back to 4th place.

Dylan and David prove you can win a Hyrox multiple ways

With Kent fading, David Magida and Dylan Scott (who had been back around 7th and 9th place heading into the sled pulls) began to make their move.

They absolutely flew through the sled pulls, coming out in 3rd and 4th place, and by the time we hit the burpees, David Magida was in 2nd place and Dylan Scott was just one burpee behind Ryan Kent.

It was at the kettlebell carries where everything shuffled again and Magida came out with a pretty significant lead, Scott came out in second and Sandbach in third.

In the European Championships, the early leaders kept their lead throughout the entire race. Magida and Scott showed that you don’t necessarily have to take and maintain an early lead to win a high-level race. Indeed, perhaps it was attempting this that cost Ryan Kent; who ended up finishing in 7th place.

Retribution for David Magida

David Magida was the only person who went into Chicago thinking he could, would and should win the event.

In Europe, David seemed to struggle (we’ve since found out he had a back issue) and heading into a race just a few weeks later there didn’t seem enough time to make the improvements he needed.

Racing pain free though, David looked like a completely different athlete. After so many people wrote him off going into this Championship, it must be particularly sweet to take a dominant win on home soil. Indeed, you saw by David’s reaction just how much it meant to him.

Looking at David’s build, you’d be forgiven for thinking he is a strength athlete. However, it’s his running ability that proves most dangerous towards the closing stages of a Hyrox. David is able to carry his considerable speed through the entirety of the race. In Chicago, it meant that once he took the lead, it was near impossible to catch him between stations.

Women fly out! Mikaela Norman takes an early fall.

Compared to the men who seemed to hold back their pace slightly, the women absolutely flew out the gate.

Lauren Weeks and Megan Jacoby were a few steps ahead of the other competitors and, seeing them begin to pull away, Mikaela Norman looked to pull herself out of the pack of athletes to make an attempt to catch Lauren and Megan.

However, cutting across athletes moving at this speed proved costly, as Norman was clipped on her heal and took a really nasty fall. Looking at the footage in slow motion, this wasn’t simply a trip – she hit her face pretty hard on the arena’s solid floor.

Somehow she pulled herself back up though and when the camera flashed back to her, she had maintained her place in the middle of the pack, although a fair distance behind Lauren and Megan.

Megan Jacoby won’t let Lauren Weeks get away

What was clear from the first lap was that Megan Jacoby had her sights locked on Lauren Weeks. After Maastricht, where Lauren got out of her competitors’ view on the runs and seemed uncatchable, Megan was focused on keeping her eyes on Lauren.

This massively changed the race for Lauren. Unlike Maastricht, where she could choose moments to take her foot off the gas and recover a little, Megan Jacoby was forcing Lauren Weeks to keep a relentless pace on each run and each station if she wanted to maintain her lead.

European Podium shuffled, but remains the same

It was around the row that the pressure heaped on Lauren by Megan initially, and now Mikaela, saw things change. You could see Lauren rowing steadily, but Mikaela and Megan went beast mode and were absolutely ripping that rower handle.

By the end of the lunges, Mikaela had taken first place with around a 20 second lead over Megan. Alundra Greenlee had actually just got out in front of Lauren by around 2-3 seconds and the two of them were about a minute off Mikaela.

Mikaela and Megan got to the wall balls in 1st and 2nd and made them look easy to finish in that order. Lauren Weeks actually arrived to the wall balls in 4th and so needed to outwork Alundra Greenlee to take that 3rd place spot.

By the end of the race then, we had the same women on the podium as Maastricht, although the order was shuffled.

Halliday takes Men’s Pro Gold – Again! Now in Elite 15.

Graham Halliday won in Manchester a few weeks ago. It was an impressive win at a huge race for an athlete with no real running background and who has only been doing functional fitness for a few years.

In Glasgow, Graham not only won again, but booked his spot in the Elite 15 with one of the fastest Hyrox times we’ve ever seen: 57 minutes and 53 seconds.

Huge congrats to him!

Aoife O’Sullivan calls it a comeback!

On the women’s side, Aoife O’Sullivan righted a wrong.

In Manchester, Aoife miscounted her laps and picked up a 5-minute penalty, which meant she finished in overall 8th place.

Although impressive for a Hyrox Pro debut, it didn’t sit well with Aoife and she was determined to prove that time and placing wasn’t representative of her ability.

She did just that… Taking the Women’s Pro Podium spot in her second ever Hyrox!

Carolina Silva takes gold!

You may remember that we introduced Carolina Silva as our featured athlete a weeks ago.

Carolina took second place in Manchester and what we loved about her was the enthusiasm, energy and good vibes she brought into the race.

Just a few weeks later, Carolina was racing in Bilbao and this time took the top spot!

We caught up with Carolina after the race who told us: “For the World Championships I will continue to work and follow The Lousa Way preparation program. I trust Tiago and his work. We will work on every point to get in the best possible shape.”

We heard you did this race to right a wrong. What happened in Manchester?
Hyrox Manchester was my very first event, and I messed up my first run – I was just too focused on all the people around me.

I didn’t run my own race, hadn’t read the rulebook, and made loads of mistakes. I was gutted to see on the screen at the end I had a penalty too, because I actually trained hard for it.

Although I finished 3rd in my age group and 8th overall, I knew it wasn’t a true reflection of what I was able to do.

How did you feel going into this race?
Not great to be honest! It was a bank holiday weekend the week before and so I was out Saturday night, Sunday and Monday! I only trained once this week and that session was awful. But I said, ‘you know what, I’ll just go in with the game plan – run my own race, follow the standards exactly, count my laps and get no penalties.’ And that’s exactly what I did and I’m delighted with the result!

Did anything surprise you about the race?
I got to the wallballs quite far ahead of the next person. I was on wall ball 50 by the time the second person came in and I really wasn’t expecting that; not in a million years! I obviously wanted to knock a few minutes off my time, but I knocked almost 8 minutes off. I just honestly can’t believe it – I’m buzzing – over the moon!

What’s the plan now?
Celebrate! Then get ready for Worlds in May!

Hyrox release details of new 2023/2024 venue!

Ireland is a super-fit country and they’re passionate about sports. If you follow CrossFit, you will know that there’s a number of successful functional fitness events held there and some very competitive athletes too. Of course, in Hyrox, we have Dena and Tom Hogan who both made the Elite 15 last year.

So, it seemed only a matter of time before Hyrox announced an event there and, indeed, this week they’ve done just that!

On 28th October 2023, as part of the 2023/2024 Hyrox season, Hyrox will be held in Dublin Ireland.

One thing to note is that it’s just a week after Birmingham!

Tickets will be available here. See you there!

Elite 15 shaping up

For those unaware, the men and women who make the podium in the European Championships or the North American Championships automatically qualify for the Elite 15 race at the World Championships.

Places don’t roll down, so this means that on the women’s side we have Lauren Weeks, Megan Jacoby and Mikaela Norman all guaranteeing their spots. And, on the men’s side, we have Alexander Roncevic, Michael Sandbach, Tim Wenisch, David Magida and Dylan Scott.

The remaining spots will be offered to those with the top 12 Hyrox times of the season on the women’s side and the top 10 Hyrox times of the season on the men’s side.

Hunter McIntyre in back!

Last year’s Hyrox World Champion and current holder of the best Hyrox time ever, Hunter McIntyre, announced that he was coming out of retirement.

In a typically brash message, he said: “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I’m coming back for the 2023 Hyrox season. The bad news is, if you’re my competitor, the best opportunity you have is second place.”

Hunter said he will compete in Stockholm and Hamburg. Interestingly, they’re only a week apart from one another. Stockholm is on 25th March and Hamburg is on 1st April.

5 Rounds For Time:

• 50 Cal Ski
• 50 Cal Assault Bike
• 20 DB Snatch (1 DB @ 15/22.5kg)
• 20 Push Press (2 DBs @ 15/22.5kg)

Mirjam Von Rohr makes a statement!

Mirjam won 2022’s Hyrox European Championships and so when she came in 5th place at the same race a few weeks ago, a few people were surprised.

It’s worth remembering that during that race Mirjam had a massive issue with her shoes that cost her a fair bit of time and she said afterwards she just didn’t feel her running was on point that day.

For Stuttgart, Mirjam said she went in feeling much more relaxed and felt better from lap one. She finished with a new PR, the 4th fastest time in Hyrox history, a record for the fastest time ever on the wallballs (going unbroken for a time of 2 minutes and 55 seconds!) and finished almost 8 minutes ahead of second place. She broke her own records in the lunges and row too.

Mirjam’s performance will throw her straight back into discussions about who will podium at the World Championships in a few months time.

Mirjam feels she can set a new World Record

Mikaela Norman currently holds the Women’s Pro Hyrox World Record of 01:00:45. After the race, Mirjam said it’s her goal to break that record, that she believes she’s on the right path to do so, but just needs a little more time.

Mirjam told us: “I can clearly improve my running times. I have to get faster and also work on my running technique. Physically, I’m not naturally built to run, which doesn’t make achieving this easy. However, I also learned after this race that if I get my station times even faster, then I can get a little more time there as well.”

We have since heard that Mirjam will be working with Tim Wenisch and Michael Sandbach of T.M. Training. Expect big things from this massive calibration!

Beau Wills joins the sub-60 club!

Beau has had some awesome races already this season. He got a 1:01.19 in Basel and hit a 1:01.30 in an exciting race featuring Tim Wenisch and James Kelly. His time of 59 minutes and 32 seconds in Stuttgart gains him access to the exclusive ‘Sub-60 Club’ and, more importantly, is the 11th best time of the season so far: putting him inside the Elite 15 race at Manchester.

Beau pushed by Hyrox Veteran & Hyrox Virgin

With Hyrox being such a new sport and having this ‘Open’ format, anyone can show up to any race and make a name for themselves.

Beau was pushed by Hyrox veteran Dieter Schwarzkopf throughout the entirety of the race, as many expected he would be. Dieter ended up coming in second place with a solid time of 1:01.06.

Incredibly though, coming in just one second behind Dieter was Sebastian Conrad Hakansson – who was competing in his first ever Hyrox. Massive props to him!

Frison marks comeback with Doubles Win

Popular Hyrox coach and former Elite 15 athlete, Markus Frison, kicked off his comeback by teaming up with rising Hyrox athlete Clemens Reinhardt. The pair took first place overall, logging the fastest run lap of the day and looking strong throughout the entire race. Markus is recovering from a pretty serious bout of Covid and an extended layoff due to injury. We’re excited to see what he can do in individual competition later this season!

You smashed your first Hyrox! Whats your background?
My background is from football in my childhood, then more running-focused over the last couple of years, with a period of OCR and Spartan between when I lived in Spain (2016-2018).

How did you find Hyrox compared to these other events?
I loved the atmosphere of the race. But, where ‘normal’ OCR is more about cardio and grip, HYROX gets more heavy and challenges muscular endurance.

How does it feel to podium and finish so close to two elite Hyrox athletes?
I was focused on not running or doing the exercises too fast to save energy. This strategy went really well for a long time. But towards the end of the race, some workouts got me muscularly. I’ve never trained lunges, burpees, wall balls or sleds before. And, actually, never even pushed a sled or thrown a wall ball before the race! So, it was fun to end up on the podium, but I guess the only one you should focus on during a race like Hyrox is yourself. Then, afterward, you see how good the performance was compared to others. I learned a lot from the race, and, before I do another one, I would do some specific training first. It should be possible to improve by several minutes.

What’s the plan for you now?
I’m not sure what I will do next. I work full-time and also study on the side, so need to see what my calendar allows me to do

Hyrox begin 2023/2024 Season ticket sales already!

Hyrox has put tickets on sale for their first announced race of the 2023/2024 season! The event released is Hyrox Birmingham at the NEC on Saturday 21st October 2023.

Anyone who has tried to sign up to a UK Hyrox event will know they sell out very quickly. This could be Hyrox seeing if they can fill and lock up an event way before next season, so they can begin work on creating and selling other new events, which there certainly seems demand for.

One thing worth noting is that individual prices have jumped up to £114.00 (€126.93/$137.55) from £79.00 (€88.56/$95.30), which is a pretty significant increase – over 33%, in fact. That said, I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion of this being Hyrox taking advantage of demand.

Hyrox could be covering themselves against UK inflation, they could be recouping costs of all the new equipment they’ve just purchased, or they could be looking to make improvements competitors have suggested – such as paid/trained judges and so on.

Tickets are available here. See you there!

Volunteer Patches Are Gold!

We’ve volunteered at a Hyrox event before and although it’s a long and tiring day, it’s also incredibly fun and rewarding.

You get to support and guide all kinds of athletes. You also get to watch them complete a serious physical challenge – doing this, you truly get swept up in their emotions of determination, frustration, excitement, joy: it’s a wild ride!

Hyrox have started issuing these patches, in addition to t-shirts and shorts, to those who offer their time as a volunteer. We think they’re stunning and would look great stuck to your bag!

Hyrox American Championships Will Stream Live

Our friends over at The OCR Report have announced that they will be live streaming the Elite 15 male and female races from the Hyrox American Championships.

This is huge news for Hyrox fans who can’t make the event and we’re especially excited as their coverage of the European Championships was excellent.

The broadcast will begin on The OCR Report Youtube Channel from 12PM Central Time on Saturday February 11th.

Roncevic & Lousa’s World Record Attempt

There was a lot of anticipation over the weekend of a new world record being set in the male doubles division. Alexander Roncevic and Tiago Lousa, who hold the two fastest Hyrox individual times of the season so far, came to Manchester to challenge the 48 minutes and 52 seconds record set by Michael Sandbach and Tim Wenisch last year.

On the day, Alexander Roncevic and Tiago won the Manchester Hyrox Male Doubles with a time of 52minutes exactly. This was almost 5 minutes ahead of second place (56:50), but just over 3 minutes off the world record. There was a lot of speculation that the Manchester course was one of the slower courses to date, but, to their credit, neither Alexander or Tiago claimed this would have made the difference.

In fact, after the race Alexander said: “We fought, we struggled and we pushed each other through the race. Even if it‘s a double you‘re still going through hell but you‘re doing it together which makes it just a little bit easier. Shout-out to [Michael Sandbach] and [Tim Wenisch] for the crazy WR they set back in Amsterdam, we weren‘t even close to their time, they really crushed it!”

Many felt the course resulted in slower times

Many athletes feel the course in Manchester was significantly slower than other recent courses. A few theories on why this could be have popped up:

• A number of athletes felt the course was a bit longer overall in terms of distance.
• Three laps meant more turns and a requirement to slowdown and speed back up more often – meaning your overall average speed and potential energy expenditure was higher.

To be honest, I try not to get too heavily involved in these debates, because it’s impossible for me to know the answer. I think Hyrox do an incredible job at making each and every course VERY similar. However, due to the shape of venues, the material the floor is made of, the temperature, the humidity, the age of equipment on a certain day – it’s impossible to ensure each and every race is exactly the same.

How was your training going into this event?
I’m an Endurance Zone (Tiago Lousa) athlete and my training is according to this ongoing plan. The results don’t just arrive after a month of training: it’s necessary to be consistent and trust the training process.

How does it feel to podium such a big event?
It’s always good to win or finish on the podium. It’s good to see the results of our hard work and one more good reason to keep working!

Any observations about the race?
Manchester was the most beautiful venue I’ve done. Lots of people and great energy.

What’s the plan for you now?
Keep working. There is still a lot to improve. In less than 2 weeks, I will be back racing in Bilbao. I’m also going to Barcelona in March and there is still a date to choose before the World Championships.

The Rich Ryan Situation

As things stand, numerous notable American Hyrox athletes will not be allowed to enter Chicargo’s American Championships on 11th February 2023. This includes America’s Rich Ryan, who finished 7th overall in last year’s World Championship and second to Ryan Kent (favourite to win this year’s World Championship) in Los Angeles earlier this season. The Hyrox rulebook states because Rich does not have a Top 15 time he is not automatically invited and because he does not have a Top 30 time, even if more than 15 athletes decline their spots, there is no chance he can be considered for the Chicago event.

Athletes, especially American athletes, have argued that with Americans having less opportunities to race (with less Hyrox races in America compared to Europe) and American courses seeming to result in slower times than European courses (for whatever reason), the current system is shutting Americans out of the Elite 15 – highlighted by the fact that only one American got an automatic invite to the Elite 15 race on the male side of the North American Championships.

The good news is that Hyrox’s Mintra Tilly – Head of Sport and Global Race Director- has been keen to talk about this and made clear that Hyrox are ready and willing to work with athletes and the broader community to find a solution for next season. The bad news is, for now, Rich Ryan and co will have to sit on the sidelines whilst the Hyrox Elite race takes place in their home country.

Hyrox is heading to Miami!

Hyrox has announced what they believe will be their biggest and most exciting event in America so far: Hyrox Miami on Thursday, 23rd March, through Sunday, 26th March 2023. Significantly, Hyrox will be ‘powering’ a huge 4-day ‘Fitness Festival’ on Miami Beach that will include not only a full Hyrox schedule, but live music and many other health and fitness attractions too. It sounds very much like the hugely popular Wodapalooza Fitness Festival that’s held in Miami each January; exciting, because Wodapalooza is one of CrossFit’s most popular and loved events of the calendar year. Hyrox America is playing catch-up to Europe in terms of events and participation, but they believe US entrants will double to 30,000 this season, and an event like this should all but guarantee it! More info here.

Built For Athletes released this Hyrox-themed Bag

Built For Athletes recently announced that they have become official partners of HYROX UK for the remainder of the season 2022/2023 season. They certainly made a splash in Manchester, when they arrived with a literal truck full of these absolutely beautiful black and yellow Hyrox-themed bags. The Hero 2.0 bag is available on the Built For Athletes website, but if you want a patch you’ll need to hunt them down at a UK Hyrox event this season.

Lauren Weeks is back-back

About 15 minutes into The OCR Report coverage, after each commentator had picked their favourites to win, one of the boys acknowledged that no one had even mentioned Lauren Weeks. They went on to discuss how there was a question about her fitness being just 6 months postpartum, but pointed out she’d be keen to make a statement. And… Wow did she do that! From the get go, Lauren Weeks just floored it. She attacked each and every run and looked uncatchable on the track. If this is what Lauren can do six months after childbirth, she’s going to be hard to beat this season.

Linda Meier didn’t start

Going into the race, many had Linda Meier as the favourite to win. She was second in last year’s World Championships and was top of the Hyrox Elite rankings following her performance in Amsterdam at the end of 2022. For currently unknown reasons, Linda Meier did not start the race. Whatever the reason, we wish Linda the best and look forward to her next performance in live competition.

Megan ran an extra lap – could she have won?

During the race, it seemed Megan Jacoby ran an extra lap. Because this was a three+ lap course, this wasn’t quite as devastating as a one or two lap course. However, it did put Megan in a hole she did very well to pull herself out from – making it all the more impressive she finished second! It happened during the run between the sled pull and the burpee broad jumps. Looking at her other run times, we can guess Megan’s lap would have been at least 1:15 quicker. This would have given her a finishing time of 1:01:57, moving her up from third place into second, and just 45 seconds behind Lauren Weeks. If Megan hadn’t have had to do all that extra work and mentally regather herself, could she have beaten Lauren? Who knows… but it sets up an exciting rematch should both make it to Chicargo!

An Epic rematch looks likely on the men’s side too

The early race saw Michael Sandbach and Alexander Roncevic pushing each other through the runs and stations. However, by the end of the event, it was Tim Wenisch who worked himself into the second podium position – Michael taking the third. With a slight adjustment of approach, any of these three guys could have picked up the win and… from what we hear… all three are keen to head down to Chicargo for a rematch. If it happens, it’ll be Epic!

But… Ryan Kent

Anyone wanting to take the win in Chicago will need to get past Ryan Kent – arguably the favourite to win the Hyrox World Championships and dominate the sport now Hunter McIntyre has retired. Kent came second to Hunter in last year’s World Championships and took a comfortable first place with a solid performance at Los Angeles last month, which most feel was a very difficult course.

The sled push spread males and females out

Michael Sandbach and Alexander Roncevic absolutely crushed the sled push – the two went 2:06 and 2:07 respectively. It was on this station the two let each other know they were up for going head-to-head and it stayed this way for the majority of the race. It was similar on the women’s side too. We saw a 1:53 by Mikaela Norman and a 2:00 by Lauren Weeks with a good number of ladies slipping into the 2 minutes and 40 seconds or more. It continues to be a hugely important station if you want to do well in Hyrox.

Available commentary was awesome

With Hyrox not having their own official commentary team, my fellow content creators stood up and offered the community some excellent coverage of the European Championships. Race Brain had Rich Ryan and Dylan Scott offering a pretty laid back watch-along with a ton of insight and opinion and The OCR Report offered a more traditional and professional feeling broadcast with Brakken Kraker, Dave Claxton and Ryan Kent. I ended up watching both streams (one after the other) and was so impressed and grateful for what each offered – they really enhanced the viewing experience. Keep it up, guys!

Hyrox is fun to watch!

When I first got into Hyrox, as a competitor, I wondered whether there was an audience for it as a sport. Could people get excited about watching the same functional fitness event over and over? The more I’ve got to know about Hyrox, understand the challenge, and hear the stories of the athletes at the top of the sport: the more interested I’ve become. The broadcasts this weekend proved to me that, done right, each race can be exciting. I was glued to my screen for both races – that’s down to the incredible athletes and the improving broadcast quality too.

LEVLS APP

LEVLS have joined the ranks of official HYROX training providers. LEVLS is a sleek, modern app that offers a range of training programs for athletes from beginner through to advanced. Their Hyrox program is written by some high level Hyrox Athletes and coaches including Beau Wills, Dr. Alandra Greenlee and Jordan Bryant. The workouts are designed specifically for Hyrox, look genuinely fun and helpful for athletes wishing to improve performance, and work with scientifically backed progressive overload. Depending on where you are in your training and how close you are to a race, you will go through different phases too. At only $19.99 this seems very good value and a cut above many of the ‘template programs’ I’ve seen in the past.

Deka is coming to the UK and EU

Finally! Deka and Hyrox are the two fastest growing functional fitness events in the world right now. DEKA, a Spartan competition, has been building momentum in the US, but beyond events in Tenerife, hasn’t done much in Europe at all. It seemed only a matter of time though, with Hyrox taking off and selling out so regularly in places like the UK, but Spartan hadn’t been quick to confirm anything.

Well, this week they finally did it. We’ll see a small DEKA STRONG event in Clitheroe on 25th February 2023 and then a number of events across Europe; including: Málaga on June 24th, Madrid on July 29th and Tenerife on 18th November. It’s still a slim schedule, but we’re excited that Europeans will have the opportunity to test themselves at another hybrid racing event!