The first UK event of 2023 took place in Manchester on 28th January 2023, where 4000 athletes competed under the distinctive arched roof of the Manchester Central Convention Complex (a renovated railway station).  The venue, which hosted the HYROX World Championships in May, is surely one of the most impressive looking on the HYROX calendar.  A review of that event is below.  To read up on the most recent HYROX Manchester event click here. 

Men’s Doubles

The day got off to an exciting start at 8am with the Men’s Doubles featuring not only yours truly 😉 but also 3 athletes who had been part of the Men’s Elite race at the European Championship in Maastricht just one week prior; Tom Hogan (who partnered with his son), Alexander Roncevic (the European Champion), and the fastest Male Pro of the season so far, Tiago Lousa.

Tiago and Alexander had teamed up with the aim of breaking the Men’s Doubles World Record.  It wasn’t to be though, and despite their fast start, they couldn’t quite beat the incredible time set in Amsterdam by Tim Wenisch and Michael Sandbach, ultimately finishing over 3 minutes short in a time of 52:00m.  Whether the fact they never quite made it was due to them both having raced only 1 week prior in Maastricht, or the relatively busy UK running track (which they both commented on when I spoke to them afterwards – more on that in a bit), or the fact that the World Record is simply a mind-blowing time, we can’t know for sure – I suspect it was a combination of the three.  There is, of course, no shame in their performance though in what is the 6th fastest Men’s doubles time ever.

Women’s Pro

Tom, Alexander and Tiago weren’t the only Elite racers we saw in Manchester, as Felicity Cole – who had also raced in Maastricht a week earlier, and who is the fastest UK Women’s Pro ever – took part in the Women’s Pro division, winning it in a time of 1:08:38.  That was 3.5 minutes clear of Carolina Silva in 2nd.  Olivia Lukasewich was 3rd in 1:12:52.

I asked Felicity for her comments after the race and she kindly sent me this:

“Firstly, wow what a day! What an event! The UK crowd are something else! I love how the UK people have gone all in on HYROX and the passion and excitement around it is next level!

I wasn’t feeling my best going into Manchester. I had the European Champs in Maastricht the weekend before and started that race with achilles pain from running with cold, wet feet in December that was getting progressively worse.  However, my family were there watching and it was a home race so I really wanted to do it! So I went into the race with a goal to try to relax and have fun! (And of course I was hoping I could do enough for the win!)

With our start time straight after the men’s and mixed doubles I knew it was going to be a crowded course, so tough to get a fast run. I set off quite quickly to try to create some space between me and the others because I knew the corners were going to be tight and bunched up.

The exercises all felt as brutal as they usually do! I noticed I still had quite a lot of fatigue in my legs from the Euro Champs so I tried a different strategy than I normally would on the sled push and that paid off.  The run course felt very long, which is good for me in the race, but not for getting a good time!

The support was amazing the whole way through, especially at the wall balls and I appreciated that and the kind words from people afterwards so much!  It felt so amazing to take the win especially as my first individual race in London April 2022 I had a massive shoe fail on the sled push so I had unfinished business!

My plan now is to start a new 6 week training block and sort out my Achilles before racing in Barcelona and/or Stockholm and then Malaga.  I obviously want to try to stay in the Elite 15, that is going to be a tough ask with the incredible athletes coming through but that is the goal! This may mean I have to revise my race calendar as the rest of the season plays out!”

Men’s Pro

In the Men’s Pro race, which kicked off at 7.30pm in the evening, towards the end of a long day, Graham Hailliday won in a time of 1:02:02. He was closely followed by Afan Humphries in 2nd (1:02:59), and Harry Thompson in 3rd (1:05:03).

Graham sent the below comments after the race…

A Slow Course?

A fair few athletes commented that they were slower than they’d hoped, and part of the reason was due to a relatively busy running track at times.  Felicity Cole’s time, whilst impressive, was over 2 minutes slower than her personal best (which is the Women’s Pro world record for the 40-44 age group), and in the above comments she mentions how the busy track made it difficult for her to run as fast as she would have ideally liked.

There’s no doubt it was busy at times out there – especially when there were still Doubles partnerships racing.  There’s not much, I don’t think, that can be done about that in reality – it’s a consequence of HYROX’s popularity (in the UK in particular), and making your way through other athletes is really part of the sport now. Doing so in Manchester was probably harder though than it has been at the other UK events this year (Birmingham and London), with the running track a little narrower to normal, as well as 3 laps of the arena required for each run (compared to the 2 we normally have in the UK).

What Does the Data Show?

I was asked if the data backs up that the running track was slow (or even excessively long!).  This is, unfortunately, very difficult to look at.  You can’t directly compare run times from venue to venue, because the track size is adjusted to account for the size of the roxzone (with athletes needing to cover 8.7km distance in total).

We can, however, use the mid-point method I used in this “venue differences” article to see how fast or slow athletes were on the day on avergae. This is where I look at the time of the person who finished exactly middle of the pack in the Men’s Open.  Out of the 650 Men’s Open athletes who finished, the person in 325th position got a time of 1:30:18.  That is 1.5 minutes slower than the mid-way person in the previous UK event (in London), and is, in fact, the slowest that we’ve seen in Europe so far this season.

Why might this be?  Is it because 3 laps were required for the runs (more corners to turn)? Or because the running track was reasonably busy?  Or maybe just the overall average standard of athletes on the day wasn’t as high as at other venues? We can never know.

I can say I know that HYROX put a huge amount of work into ensuring standardisation as much as possible between venues.  I’ve chatted with Mintra Tilly about this in the past, and got to have a long chat with the founder, Christian Toetzke, on the Friday night before the race about this too.

Sleds are often a topic of conversation but to me they looked like they performed around average – not particularly slow, or fast – so I don’t think the slower overall time was down to them.

The average burpee broad jump time, however, was the slowest we’ve seen this year – a whopping 1 minute slower than the average of BBJ times we seen throughout the rest of the season.  That is presumably – in some part – a result of the continued strict judging standards being applied.  I have to say – I have no complaints from that perspective at all and didn’t hear anyone else have any – we knew what to expect, and from what I saw, athletes complied with the standards very well.

So yes, even though HYROX do a great job off standardising the courses across the world as much as is possible, it does feel like, if anything, Manchester was on the slow side. Whether that’s due to a venue / set up / running track reason, or whether it was just the overall average standard of athletes on the day being slower, I can’t say.

World Records

The venue set up / busy running track didn’t stop a couple of amazing ladies from breaking World Records in their respective age groups.

Firstly, there was Samantha Bilbie who – making her HYROX debut(!) – broke the Women’s 45-49 World Record with a time of 1:06:40, beating the previous record by over 1.5 minutes. 

There was also Yoie Bohlin, a Swedish athlete, who set a time of 1:00:47 in the Women’s Open, 30-34 age group, beating the previous record by 2 minutes! I believe that was also her debut in HYROX.

It will be interesting to see what both these impressive athletes can do if and when they step up to the Pro division.  Age group records will be under threat, and they’ll potentially be contenders for Elite spaces at the World Championships in May!

Women’s Doubles

The fastest women’s doubles pairing in Manchester were Claire Clancy and Emma Munsch, finishing in a fantastic 01:01:59.  They were followed by Alice Wheater and Katrin Hulme in 01:02:53, and then Stephanie Whyte and Katie Pond in 01:06:57.

Mixed Doubles

Very little time separated the top 3 teams in the Mixed Doubles.  Ultimately, Sam Tucknott and Kerry Langley were the fastest with a time of 01:01:31.  Second was Adam Collard and Jade Skillen in 01:01:42, and then Pippa Mills and Will Holland in 01:01:51. 

Men’s Open

There wasn’t much to separate the top guys in the Men’s Open either, with Marc Dean taking the win (01:00:11), Jake Dearden in 2nd (01:00:18), and Adam Corlett in 3rd (01:00:34).

World Championship Venue

I have to be honest – when HYROX initially announced that the 2023 HYROX World Championships were to be held in Manchester, I wasn’t excited.  Sure, the venue looks great, but when I was last there – in January 2022 – I found it far too small / crowded inside the hall and it didn’t make for a great spectator experience, nor a socialising experience when you weren’t racing.

I’m pleased to say, this event altered that view! HYROX made changes to the set up this time round which made spectating much easier (with more room to move around, and the addition of the bleachers at the wall ball station a great move).

One other nice touch was that you didn’t have to cross the track (to the inside) to get to the start line.  Crossing the track can take time – especially at these UK events – and when you need to check your bag in, go the toilet, and then get across the track just to reach the start line – it can get stressful! By simply having the start line / tunnel on the outside of the track, as well as the warmup area, it made things MUCH easier.

Let us know what you thought of the event in the comments below!

Here are some photos of the 2023 event:

Photo credit: Amber Zoe Ruddle