The lastest HYROX event was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands for the first time, following the success of previous races in Amsterdam and the European Championships in Maastricht.  The event was held on 20th May 2023 at Rotterdam Ahoy.

The results on the day were as follows:

Men’s Pro

The Men’s Pro was won by Eugenio Bianchi in a time of 01:04:25.

Phillip Wamser was second in 01:06:49, followed by Martijn Ploeger in 01:08:35.

Women’s Pro

The Women’s Pro race was won by Renate Van Wijnbergen in a time of 01:15:27.

Second was Lou Esnard in 01:17:44, followed by Lyanne Zoeteman in 01:19:01.

Renate kindly shared these comments with us after the race: “Rotterdam was my 4th hyrox, I did Maastricht twice and Amsterdam once before, but women open. I love running, did already trained a lot, and loved hyrox immediately because of the combination of both and the competition, it keeps me motivated.

Me and my boyfriend own a gym in Assendelft, we offer HIIT, WOD and also HYROX now. On top of that I am a yoga teacher.

Three weeks before Rotterdam I decided to adjust my registration from open to pro, and after that we went on a holiday for a week, so I had 1,5 week of real pro training left.

In Rotterdam I arrived on time, made sure I knew the right order of the workouts and especially how to enter and leave the sled push and pull. Checked out the board where you can see if you need to run or go to the workout. There were so many penalty’s for not running enough laps on it! I had to focus on the laps. It was a bit confusing, 2,75 laps, and during the race I had some doubts about whether I needed to run or to go to the workout, but luckily no penalty’s for me.

After that I started the warming up, and felt it was very hot.

From my first hyrox in Maastricht I knew starting the running too fast would ruin the whole race, but I started too fast anyway😅. Slowed down a bit after one lap, entered the ski with the first 5 or 6 ladies, but decided to race my own race, so left a bit later.

The running course was a bit small and the slower mixed doubles were on it, so we had to pass many of them.

Sled push was heavy, I needed to stop after 12,5m every time, and afterward the legs were so sore. Because of the heat I felt a bit sick, so the running was way slower than my other races. I like the sled pull, but hate the burpees. Nevertheless I catched up with the lady in from of me.

When I entered the rower, I was more than 2 minutes ahead of the woman behind me. Farmer carry went very bad, especially the last 50meter, definitely need to train the pro weights more. I was all by myself, did not see anyone before or after me, but I was 100% sure I wasn’t the first. Lunges went fine, the 1km running after it was hell, and the wall balls even more. When I did around 80 wall balls, I heard the first woman was crossing the finish line, and I felt a bit dissapointed, but finished shortly after. Still not sure what happened there, but I ended up being the first at the end!

Hyrox already had my focus, but now even more. I will also be in Manchester this weekend!

Sled Pull

The Pro races, in particular, in Rotterdam, seemed to be impacted by tough sled pulls on the day (the men especially).  This is an issue that seems to occasionally appear in HYROX where the sled pull is much tougher than it might be at other events (with no obvious explanation as to why).  We saw it most recently, for example, at the Hamburg race where some top competitors had to pull out the race because the sled pull was so tough. 

In Rotterdam, the median sled pull time for the Pro men was 07:32.  Compare that to recent events in Hong Kong – where it was just 04:25 – or Hannover – where it was 05:26.  

Men’s Open

The Men’s Open was won by Bradley Graham in 01:00:58. 

Second was Omar Mansour in 01:01:30, very closely followed by Brandon Wilkins in 01:01:36.

Women’s Open

The Women’s Open race was won by Pia Kossack in 01:08:26. 

Second was Anne Caroline Charpentier in 01:09:48.

A very close third place was taken by British Olympic Curling gold medallist Eve Muirhead in her first HYROX race, in a time of 01:09:51.

Doubles

The Men’s Doubles was won by Thierry Willigenburg and Hidde Weersma in 00:50:24. This incredible performance saw them take the U29 age group World Record – congratulations! It’s also the third fastest mens doubles time ever!

The Women’s Doubles was won by Lyndsey Hester and Tracey Wright in 01:08:17.

The Mixed Doubles was won by Martina Goerz and Jaafar Moumen in 00:58:11.

A special mention also to Pascal Bleys and Marino Malinka who claimed the Men’s Doubles 60+ age group World Record in a fantastic time of 01:14:17.

If you competed in Rotterdam, let us know in the comments below how your race went, and what you thought of the day!