Hybrid Highlights – Your Weekly Hyrox Roundup – Chicago, Glasgow & Bilbao

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)