The latest HYROX Birmingham event was held on 21st October 2023 at the Birmingham NEC. The following day the venue also hosted the HYROX Open Relay Championships, with a full day of relays (teams of 4, each person taking on 2 “legs” each (2 runs, and 2 functional stations). On that day, there was prize money up for grabs for the winning men’s team, womens team, and mixed teams. There’s more info on that here.
One Doubles pairing of note to take part in Birmingham was HYROX World Champion, Hunter McIntyre, and Jon Wynn, who teamed up in the Men’s Doubles with the aim of breaking the World Record! They were up against (amongst others), Elite 15 athletes James Kelly and Graham Halliday (more details here).
A preview post featuring more of the athletes that raced was featured here on our Instagram account.
Read on for all the results, winners, times, news and stats from the HYROX Birmingham weekend…
HYROX Birmingham Floor Plan
World Championship Qualifying Spaces
Tough Course
Despite the layout looking good on paper, with only 2 laps required per km, and all the stations in numerical order, many athletes felt like the course was tough / relatively slow on the day. The sled push, early in the day, certainly felt heavier than normal, and then by the time the Pro divisions ran, it seemed like the sled pull was particularly tough, with some athletes, in some lanes, unable to move it at all, or taking MUCH longer than they normally might. Why this sometimes seem to occur in HYROX is unknown, but presumably due to issues with the carpet.
What also won’t have helped is that hand chalk was in particularly low supply and had pretty much completely run out by midday. This made farmers carries and sled pulls very tough for some athletes. Hopefully this is an issue that HYROX can learn from, and they’ll ensure there is enough chalk provided for future events.
Men’s Doubles
An incredible Men’s Doubles was won by Hunter McIntyre and Jon Wynn in an amazing time of 00:49:39. They were aiming for the World Record, but ultimately fell short – the WR remains with Michael Sandbach and Tim Wenisch with a seriously impressive time of 00:48:52.
It was a fantastic race, with Graham Halliday and James Kelly finishing second in a time of 00:50:57. They narrowly missed out on the U29 World Record, which stands at 00:50:24 (held by Hidde Weersma and Thierry Willigenburg).
The podium was completed by Jake Dearden and Marc Dean in a time of 00:51:40.Â
A great race from 6 incredible athletes to start the day, and watched by hundreds and hundreds of spectators, in a fantastic atmosphere, despite the early 8am start. Â
Men’s Pro
The winner of the Men’s Pro division was Sadiq Elfitouri in a time of 01:01:04.
Adam Corlett was second in 01:01:27, and third was Mark Lynch with a time of 01:02:03.
Women’s Pro
The Women’s Pro was won by Kate Davey in a time of 01:08:50.
Jade Skillen was second in 01:11:41.
The podium was completed by Shaunie Gibson with a time of 01:15:47.
Men’s Open
The Men’s Open was won by Aaron Woodman was in 00:57:40, followed by Lawrence Brown in 00:58:42.
Erlandas Sablinskas completed the podium in a time of 01:01:04.
Women’s Open
The Women’s Open was won by Samantha Pretty in a time of 01:06:53.
Melanie Carsten was second in a time of 01:07:25, extremely closely followed by Sharna Garforth in 01:07:30.
Doubles
The Women’s Doubles was won by Kimberley Keay and Nikki Brammeier in a time of 01:01:49.
The Mixed Doubles was won by Matthew Plampton and Anabel Obank in a time of 00:58:59.
Relay
The Men’s Relay was won by Pieter Maes, Thierry Willigenburg, Vince Vander Elst and Tom Franssens in a time of 00:50:26.
The Women’s Relay was won by Katrin Hulme, Ruth Casey, Alice Wheater and Kate Millward in a time of 00:59:59.
The Mixed Relay was won by Sam Bilbie, Kate Davey, Paul Gillingham (our Rox Lyfe coach) and Ciaran Parkinson in a time of 00:53:33.
Here are some photos of the event…
Getting to the Birmingham NEC
Address: National Exhibition Centre, North Ave, Marston Green, Birmingham, B40 1NT, UK
Information on getting to the Birmingham NEC can be found here.
Accommodation
Some of the nearby hotels include:
Other UK based HYROX events have taken place, or are due to take place, in London, Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow.
