Abbas Nazari is a HYROX athlete, coach, business owner and bestselling author whose journey to New Zealand began when his family fled Afghanistan when he was just seven years old.
After escaping the country during the civil war, Abbas and his family eventually found themselves on an overcrowded fishing boat attempting to reach Australia.
There were 438 people on board.
The engine failed in the Indian Ocean, the boat began taking on water and Abbas remembers believing they might die.
They were eventually rescued by the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa, beginning a chain of events that would ultimately take Abbas and his family to New Zealand.
Today, Abbas is also a competitive HYROX athlete who has raced at the HYROX World Championships and competed in the Elite 15 Regional race in Brisbane.
In this episode of the Rox Lyfe podcast, we discuss his extraordinary journey, the way it shaped his outlook on life, and the lessons he has learned through HYROX and training.
Growing Up in Afghanistan
Abbas was born in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s during the country’s civil war.
He grew up in a remote village in the central highlands, where his family was initially relatively protected from the violence affecting other areas.
But as the Taliban gained control across Afghanistan, his parents decided they could no longer stay.
The family crossed into Pakistan, hoping to find safety and eventually build a new life.
Instead, Abbas says they found themselves in a situation where they were safe from immediate conflict but had very few rights or opportunities.
They could not properly work, build a business or establish the future his parents wanted for their children.
So they continued their journey.
438 People on an Overcrowded Boat
The family eventually reached Indonesia.
From there, they boarded an old fishing vessel that was supposed to take them across the Indian Ocean towards Christmas Island, an Australian territory.
The boat was packed with people.
Abbas only learned after the rescue that there had been 438 people aboard, including 433 asylum seekers and five Indonesian crew members.
The crossing was supposed to take less than two days.
Instead, the engine failed.
With no propulsion and no meaningful way of communicating with the outside world, they were left drifting at sea.
Passengers even tried to create makeshift paddles from sections of the boat.
The vessel also began taking on water.
Abbas was only seven, but he clearly remembers the panic around him and understanding that they were in serious danger.
The MV Tampa Rescue
On the third day, a cargo ship appeared on the horizon.
It was the MV Tampa, a Norwegian container ship travelling between Australia and Singapore.
The crew diverted to rescue them.
Abbas recalls passengers climbing aboard one by one and having numbers written on their wrists as the crew tried to work out how many people had been rescued.
Not a single life was lost.
But being rescued did not immediately solve the problem.
The Tampa headed towards Christmas Island, but the Australian government refused permission for the asylum seekers to disembark.
What started as a rescue became an international political dispute.
Eventually, New Zealand offered to accept a group of the refugees, including families with children.
Abbas and his family were among them.
They arrived in New Zealand on 30 September 2001.
Starting Again in New Zealand
Abbas describes arriving in New Zealand as being given the chance to start life again.
He and his siblings entered school, learned English and gradually became part of their new community.
For Abbas, adapting was easier because he was still young.
For his parents, learning a new language and culture in their forties was much harder.
But seeing their children thrive helped convince them that the enormous risks they had taken had been worthwhile.
Abbas now considers New Zealand home.
He has returned to Afghanistan several times, including in 2026, but his life and family are based in New Zealand.
How Abbas Found HYROX
Abbas did not grow up as an elite endurance athlete.
He played football and rugby, then later experimented with running, athletics and functional fitness.
His first HYROX was Sydney in 2023, where he entered the Men’s Open race.
He was immediately hooked.
Since then, he has competed at the HYROX World Championships, raced in the Elite 15 Regional race in Brisbane and qualified for the 2027 World Championships in Hong Kong.
HYROX also fits closely with his work.
Around the time he discovered the sport, he opened a group fitness studio in Wellington and later became a qualified HYROX coach.
Why He Does Not Chase Huge Running Mileage
One of the most useful parts of our conversation was Abbas’s approach to training as a heavier athlete.
He races at around 94-95kg and says he has learned that simply copying the running volume of lighter athletes does not suit him.
Rather than trying to run 60, 70 or 80 kilometres every week, he does a lot of off-feet conditioning.
That became particularly important before the Elite 15 race in Brisbane.
Abbas was dealing with a knee problem that was later diagnosed as a torn meniscus and could barely run for around two months.
Instead, he maintained his conditioning through equipment such as the Concept2 BikeErg and Assault Bike.
His experience reinforced the idea that athletes can develop and maintain a strong aerobic engine without getting all of their conditioning from running.
That can be particularly useful for bigger athletes or anyone managing injury risk.
More Hard Training Is Not Always Better
Like many athletes starting HYROX, Abbas initially believed he needed to train hard all the time.
His approach is now very different.
He keeps the amount of genuinely demanding training relatively low and places more value on easy work, recovery and consistency.
He also took useful lessons from the Red Bull HYROX Coaches Camp at Silverstone, particularly around structuring training with lower-intensity and higher-intensity days rather than trying to make every session difficult.
For many amateur athletes, that may be one of the most useful messages from the episode.
You probably do not need more hard sessions.
You may simply need to train consistently enough to benefit from the work you are already doing.
Keeping HYROX in Perspective
Perhaps Abbas’s biggest message had little to do with programming.
He believes athletes can attach too much of their identity to race times, rankings and social media.
A bad race can start to feel like a judgement on someone’s self-worth rather than simply one sporting performance.
His own experiences have given him a very different perspective.
HYROX matters to him. He trains seriously and wants to improve.
But it is still sport.
His message is to keep working, stay consistent and enjoy trying to improve without allowing HYROX to become your entire identity.
Given everything Abbas experienced before he ever reached a HYROX start line, that perspective carries a little more weight than most.
Listen to the Full Conversation
In the full episode, Abbas talks much more about growing up in Afghanistan, the journey that eventually led his family onto the Tampa, rebuilding life in New Zealand, competing in HYROX and the training lessons he has picked up along the way.
You can also find Abbas’s bestselling book, After the Tampa, which tells the story of his family’s journey and the events surrounding the rescue.
Listen on Spotify here, or on You Tube below.
