HYROX hosted the first event of the HYROX Elite 15 season on November 11th at the Chicago Navy Pier venue. It was the first Major event of the season and the first race of a new series format.
As a reminder HYROX implemented a new Elite 15 structure this year announcing 4 Major races:
- HYROX ( Chicago, 11th November)
- Scandinavian (Stockholm, 7th December)
- European (Vienna, 10th February))
- US (Washington, 7th March)
What are the Majors?
The Majors are 4 regional events that athletes must qualify to race in. They are grid format races with livestreams, cash prizes and qualification slots for the World Championships. The 4 Majors are the Scandinavian, European, HYROX and US Majors. Each race will host a Male and a Female Elite 15 Event.
Qualification for these Major events occurs via a combination of:
- Auto Qualification via 22/23 Season Elite 15 results – 1st, 2nd, 3rd from the World Championships and 1st place from the North American and European Championships in season 22/23 will be auto-qualified for all Majors.
- Time Qualification – The remaining slots shall be awarded to the fastest recorded times from Jan 1st 2023 – to the end of the 23/24 season, if a prequalified athlete chooses not to accept their invite that slot shall be rolled down to the next fastest qualifying time from a qualifying race starting Jan 1st 2023. Qualifying times must be recorded at least 2 weeks prior to each race.
15 Male and 15 Female athletes will qualify to race at each Major and each Major race qualifies up to 3 athletes for the World Championship race (1st, 2nd and 3rd in the relevant Major).
Both the Male and the Female Races were livestreamed on the HYROX Youtube Channel, hosted by Lauren Smith and commentary from Rox Lyfe’s Greg Williams (videos shown below).
Men’s Field
In the men’s field a number of well-known athletes opted not to compete, including current World Champion Hunter McIntyre, former World Champion Tobias Lautwein, French superstar Joffrey Voisin, German athlete Florian Gast, 2 time podium athlete Michael Sandbach and Jannik Czapla from Germany. With the advent of the new qualification structure, athlete seasons and tactics are evolving, some athletes opting to focus on later season peaking and others looking to secure their WC spots as soon as possible.
In a very exciting race, Ryan Kent ultimately took the win in an incredible time of 55:12, making him the second fastest man ever in the sport (and setting a new age group world record in the 35-39 AG). He was just ahead of Rylan Schadegg who only punched his ticket to this race after running in Valencia a few weeks prior. He finished in Chicago in 55:46, 2.5minutes ahead of his Valencia time, and in a time that makes him the third fastest man ever (and fastest in his age group). The ever reliable Alexander Roncevic completed the podium. Those top 3 have now claimed their places at the 2024 HYROX World Championships in Nice.
There were also particularly impressive performances from Pelayo Menendez (4th) and Rich Ryan (5th). Both of those athletes were only in this race on a rolldown, but have now secured their ticket to all the remaining HYROX majors.
You can watch footage of the race below…
Female Field:
When the Females took to the floor shortly after the finish of the mens race, the crowd were treated to an early season spectacle – 2 of the sport’s biggest names Americans Lauren Weeks (2023 World Champion) and Megan Jacoby (existing world record holder) were both competing, and they took an early lead against the rest of the field. This time round Megan Jacoby came away the victor, winning in commanding style in 01:00:18. That was nearly 2 minutes ahead of weeks in 2nd, with Linda Meier (a former world record holder) finished in 3rd in 01:03:56, after an exciting battle at the wall balls against Vivan Tafuto.
Swedish athlete Mikaela Norman, last years US Champion who also missed out on the 22/23 World Championships due to sickness chose not to compete, and neither did Swiss athlete Mirjam von Rohr.
You can watch footage from the women’s race in the below video…
Chicago 2023 Course Layout
Other Results
Away from the Elite 15 races it was business as usual for HYROX, with the Pro, Open and Doubles divisions racing.
Read on for the main results of the day.
Women’s Pro
The Women’s Pro was won by Lauren Griffith in a time of 01:04:25. This puts Lauren into 12th place in the Major Qualification Ranking and the possibility of a place in the next Major in Stockholm.
Second was Amy Bevilacqua in a time of 01:06:04, placing her in 19th in the Major Qualification Ranking. This is also an extremely impressive World Record in the 50-54 Age Group, shaving off over 7 minutes from the previous record!
Third place was taken by Morgan Schulz in a time of 01:07:21.
Men’s Pro
The Men’s Pro was won by Colin Stiefer in a time of 00:58:14. This time puts Colin into the Elite 15 in 13th place and possibly a place in the next HYROX Major in Stockholm.
Second was Anass Zouhry in 00:58:34. Another great time, which puts Anass into 17th place in the Major Qualification Ranking.
Third place was taken by Eric Williams in a time of 00:59:37.
Women’s Open
The Women’s Open was won by Imogen Cross in a time of 01:04:31.
Second was Ginny Patterson in 01:09:05.
Third place was taken by Emily Guthormsen in 01:09:30.
Men’s Open
The Men’s Open was won by Paul Fitzpatrick in a time of 00:59:48.
Second was Dawson Miller in 00:59:53.
Third place was taken by James Muscart in a time of 01:00:58.
Doubles
The Men’s Doubles was won by Joe Stacy and Blake Mistretta in a time of 00:52:31.
The Women’s Doubles was won by Madi Grausam and Lauren Peterson in a time of 01:02:50.
The Mixed Doubles was won by Maria Colacurcio and Joseph Hughes in a time of 00:57:47.
A noteworthy mention in the Mixed Doubles was Rox Lyfe’s Greg teaming up with Erg Army’s Jane Erbacher to finish 2nd in their age group and 7th overall with a time of 01:04:04. This was just 15 minutes after Greg finished 3 hours of live commentary on the 2 Elite races, with no warm up, having not eaten or had a drink in that time and without any practice on handovers!
Here are some photos of the event…
