HYROX Hong Kong – May 2023

The second Asian HYROX race took place in Hong Kong on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th May 2023 at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

Saturday hosted the Mixed Doubles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Open, Women’s PRO and the Relays.  Sunday hosted the Women’s Doubles, Men’s Open and Men’s PRO.

This was the final opportunity of the season for the Pro racers to grab a spot in the Elite 15 for the upcoming World Championships in Manchester, with both Tom Hogan and James Kelly, in particular, making the trip to Hong Kong in an attempt to cement a place. 

The results on the day were as follows:

Men’s Pro

A hugely exciting, strong Men’s Pro race was ultimately won by Tom Hogan in a time of 00:58:16 which put him back into the Elite 15 qualifying positions.

Second was James Kelly in 00:58:36. It was a PB for James and a very impressive performance, but he will surely be disappointed to miss out on an Elite 15 spot by just 15 seconds.  This time, however, leaves him in 16th position, so he could still gain a place should any of the 15 athletes above him pull out of the race for any reason.

In third place was newcomer Gabe Heck in a time of 00:59:01. Gabe had originally won the race and obtained and Elite 15 spot – however he received a 1 minute time penalty for leaving the Roxzone through the “In” gate. It appears as if the penalty was applied long after the race had finished, and, for some time, Gabe had assumed he’d done enough to qualify for the Elite 15.  To then be told he’d not won the race, nor done enough for Elite 15, must have been heartbreaking.  Nonetheless, this was an incredible performance from him in his first ever HYROX race, and he is surely one to watch in the future should he continue to race in the event.

Women’s Pro

The Women’s PRO race was won by Kimi Isom in a time of 01:18:48, very closely followed by Michiko Yajima Sato in 01:18:53.

Kimi kindly shared her thoughts with us after the race in the below video…

Third was Ilona-Jade Errington in 01:25:00.

Sleds

One thing that has to be highlighted from this event was how fast the sled push seemingly was.  There’s plenty of talk in HYROX about how the sleds can perform differently on different days, in different venues, and some of the sled push times in Hong Kong indicate that this was one of the faster days. 

The median sled push time in the Men’s Open was 2:30, for example, versus a season average of 32 seconds longer than that.  The top 3 finishers in the Men’s Pro (mentioned above) had sled push times of 2:06, 2:13, and 01:38.  If we compare that to London 2 weeks prior, the top 3 Mens Pro finishers pushed 02:19, 02:26, and 03:30. Or in Anaheim, the most recent HYROX America event, the top 3 pushed 02:48, 3:06 and 03:20.  Of course, there are different athletes involved here but that’s a significant difference.  

Women’s Open

The Women’s Open race was won by Eadaoin Mcguinness in 01:08:31.

Biddy Sefton was second in a time of 01:11:10, followed by Sarah Shuttleworth in 01:13:05.

Men’s Open

Callum Meehan won the Men’s Open in a time of 00:58:02. An impressive performance from Callum, who had also won the Men’s Doubles on Saturday.

Second place was taken by Pascal Goetz in 01:02:26.

Jan Souleyman was third with a time of 01:04:25.

Doubles

The Men’s Doubles was won by Christoph Lex and Callum Meehan in a time of 00:52:59.

The Women’s Doubles was won by Heidi Begala and Bethany Logan in 01:08:11

The Mixed Doubles was won by Ant Haynes and Tammi Robinson in 00:57:22.

2023 Event

The next HYROX Hong Kong event was held on 25th and 26th November 2023 – more details here.