Munich hosted a HYROX event of the 2022/23 season on 4th March 2023 at the Messe München. A more recent event has been held in the city on 14th October 2023 – you can read about that here.Â
Slow Course?
Many athletes commented after the race that they felt the course was slow, and / or they werent happy with their finishing times. A look at the data shows that, if we look at the median times in the Men’s Open division, this was one of the slower venues we have seen this season, and is the second slowest we’ve seen in Europe (only Manchester was slower). Here’s the median times of the German courses this season…
Munich – 01:30:11
Stuttgart – 01:25:11
Frankfurt – 01:22:46
Hamburg – 01:26:13
Essen – 01:26:33
Berlin – 01:27:00
Why Munich was slower is hard to say. It may have just been the overall speed of athletes on the day, or the fact that 2.75 laps were required on each run (though that’s not particularly unusual). Many athletes mentioned that it felt particularly hot inside the venue, and that may have slowed people down. If you were there, let us know in the comments what you think.
Women’s Pro
The Women’s Pro race was won by Alina Willnow in 01:10:44. Second was Anabel Obank in 01:12:48, closely followed by Beatrice Ardelt in 01:13:00.
Here’s what Alina had to say to us about her win:
Men’s Pro
The Men’s Pro was won by Florian Gast in a time of 01:01:53. This was a home race for Florian who is currently the 11th fastest man of the season and who performed well in the recent Elite races at the European and North American championships. Peter Schiller was second in 01:03:07 and Eugenio Bianchi was third, just one second behind, in 01:03:08.
Florian sent us these comments after the race…
Men’s Open
Fastest in the Men’s Open was Janik Hoffmann in 01:01:40. Second was Stephen Harold in 01:04:42, followed by Ziga Hutter in third with a time of 01:05:01.
Women’s Open
Fastest in the Women’s Open race was Julia Lange in 01:06:47. Second was Katharina Beck with a time of 01:11:35, followed extremely closely by Anja Schirmer with a time of 01:11:37.
Doubles
The fastest Mixed Doubles pairing were Elte Hupkes and Rebecca Naether in 00:57:53. Elte was part of the Men’s elite race at this seasons European Championships, and Rebecca was in the Women’s elite race at the 2022 World Championships, so this pairing always looked like they would be able to put in a good time and they didn’t disappoint.
The Men’s Doubles was won by Clemens Scherbel and Christopher Von Stelzer in 00:52:38. Clemens and Christopher are the reigning Men’s Doubles world champions, and will be looking to retain that title at the 2023 HYROX World Championships. This time in Munich was the 11th fastest ever in the Men’s Doubles.
The Women’s Doubles was won by Jennifer Nikolaus and Jennifer Bieling in 01:00:27.
A special mention goes to Paul Gillingham – one of our Rox Lyfe coaches – who, alongside Aaron Mcphee won their age group category in the Men’s Doubles and beat the 60 minute mark in the process! If you are interested in a personalised coaching where you work with Paul to help prepare you for your next race, then click here.
Worth also noting Anabel Obank got absolutely screwed over by a rogue judge. Said she wasn’t allowed to step up on burpees and had to always 2 foot jump up, proceesed to give her a defacto time penalty by making her not move, and was only allowed to move again after another judge corrected the mistake. This caused her to lose her lead and momentum.
Ah thats not good! Must admit I do get frustrated when judges try to implement rules that dont even exist!
The venue felt tight and although we placed well in the doubles (2nd in 40-49), we were well down on our expected time. No excuses though as that might be down to experience and the fact it was only our second ever race.
The course did feel tight compared to Birmingham and certainly much hotter but an excellent venue and event all the same!