April 2024 was another busy month in the world of HYROX. Below we take a look at some of the main news items that arose. Read on to catch up with all the latest…
Cologne / FIBO
The biggest HYROX event of the month must have been the Cologne event which was run in conjunction with the huge FIBO fitness convention.
One of the many highlights of the weekend were the “Last Chance Qualifier” races which gave anyone in the Pro division races a chance to earn themselves a spot in the Elite 15 at the 2024 HYROX World Championships.
With one spot available in the Men’s race, in a strong field, it was going to take a seriously good performance to book a place in Nice and that’s exactly what we saw, with James Kelly setting the second fastest Men’s Pro time ever. It was a great race from the Australian who finished 8th in the 2023 World Championships, and this race in Cologne has surely made him one of the favourites for a podium spot in Nice.
On the Women’s side, 3 places were up for grabs, and again there was a very strong starting lineup. In the end Zara Piergianni won the race in impressive fashion, closely followed by Jana Lebenstedt and Kate Davey.
The Pro waves weren’t the only places where some impressive performances took place though. In particular, we saw the fastest Mixed Doubles, Women’s Pro Doubles, Mixed Relay and Men’s Open times ever – seriously good times that will be VERY tough to beat and could be records that stand for a long time.
Check this article for more info, news, results and pictures from the Cologne event.
Other Events
Other HYROX events took place in Rotterdam, Malaga, Mexico, Berlin, and Bordeaux during the month.
The Rotterdam event saw the Mixed Doubles world record taken by Margot Vandenlindenloof, Tom Franssens, Charlotte Vandenlindenloof and Pieter Maes – who look likely to be the team who will represent Belgium in the relay at the 2024 World Champs in Nice. See them just afterwards here. Unfortunately for them, their record was then broken again in Cologne the following weekend!
There had been some controversy in the lead up to the Berlin event. It was revealed shortly beforehand that some of the running on the day would be outside, without cover. With rain and lowish temperatures forecast, this led to some athletes complaining that they hadn’t been made aware of this in sufficient time. HYROX duly offered the opportunity for ticket holders to be refunded, or have their ticket switched to another event. However, it turned out to be a truly memorable event, and by all accounts the athletes who were there absolutely LOVED it, with many saying it was the best HYROX event they had been to. Held at the iconic Berlin Tempelhof, an old airport, the setting was fantastic (check this article for pictures from the day).
Could outdoor HYROX events become more common in the future? It must be something that HYROX are looking at after the huge success of the Berlin event.
The Mexico event was the first time HYROX had ever been to Mexico. The average times on the day were slower than might normally be seen, even for an event where most of the competitors are new to HYROX, presumably because the location – Mexico City – sits at 2200+ meters altitude! Read more here.
Events Announcements
HYROX have announced a 3rd day for HYROX Amsterdam in October 2024. The first 2 days quickly sold out, and so an additional day was added for the Friday. This is the first 3-day event outside of the UK and Ireland and is a great sign that the sport continues to grow around the world!
It was a similar story for Dublin too, where an additional day / 3000 tickets were made available for the Friday, making it a big 3-day event.
And the Cape Town International Convention Centre has been announced as the first venue for HYROX in South Africa, to take place on 21st September 2024.
Other News
The Cologne event saw the debut of the new HYROX equipment from Centr. This has already featured at two events in America and should now be in place for all events going forward.
HYROX announced the launch of “HYROX Youngstars”, which will debut at HYROX London at the start of May 2024. This is a competition designed exclusively for young athletes aged 8 to 15 years old. Participants will need to complete a series of 9 different fitness stations, and the time taken to complete each station will be recorded. Check this article for more information.
The launch of “HYROX365” was also made during the month. This, they say, is a training, education and equipment ecosystem for gym owners, coaches and service providers. The HYROX365 ecosystem is made up of HYROX Training Clubs, Performance Hub, Performance Centr and the HYROX Academy, and will be in partnership with both FiiT and CENTR. We’ve explained more in this article.
At the start of the month, cycling legend Lance Armstrong posted on his Instagram that he’d been doing some HYROX training. There’s no details yet on if and when he’ll be competing at an actual event, but in his post he commented that “I know I said I’m not training for anything, but lately everybody has been talking about something called HYROX. So I had to get after it.” He then added “I was like: “Doesn’t seem that hard.” Well, I was dead wrong. This shit is hard.” Good to know that Lance finds it as tough as us mere mortals!
The England and USA teams for the HYROX Mixed Relay World Championships have been revealed on our Instagram this month. Michael Sandbach, Kate Davey, Rebecca Mason and Jake Williamson have been selected for England. And a strong looking USA team is made up of Hunter McIntyre, Megan Jacoby, Ryan Kent and Lauren Weeks.
Podcasts
It was another great month on the Rox Lyfe podcast with a range of fantastic guests. These include interviews with Charlie Botterill, Lee Tuck, Anthony Perressini and 5 athletes who were all preparing for the LCQ’s in Cologne (including the 2 race winners). You can listen wherever you get your podcasts (search “Rox Lyfe”) or watch on our YouTube channel.
Socials
Our Instagram account is always a great place for discussion within the community. A few interesting talking points that came up included:
- We asked for your opinions on what should happen if an Elite 15 qualifying athlete is unable to compete in the Elite race at the HYROX World Championships (perhaps due to injury, for example, which, as we understand it, is a very real possibility as things stand). Who should replace them? Check it out here.
- This post looked at the median Men’s Open times from some of the recent events. Presumably due to being outside, on a one lap track, Berlin looks to have been a very fast course. How do some of the other races stack up against it?
- The Cologne Pro races – especially on the women’s side – highlighted a few areas on the rulebook and judging that were worthy of discussion. Firstly, after seeing some athletes races completely ruined by getting a penalty at the sled pull, we asked if the penalty is currently too harsh. Secondly, the judging for some of the athletes on the burpees seemed to be very strict. It appeared, on screen at least, that athletes were being made to touch their toes, and several, including the leader, were sent back more than once due to a penalty. Join the discussion here.
- During March we had asked for people’s recommendations for their dream HYROX location. Afterwards we looked at some of the most popular suggestions and shared them in this post here. There are some great places on the list!
- Finally, something for you data fans. In this post we discussed your sled ratio. It looks at how closely your sled pull time relates to your sled pull time. These are the main strength stations in HYROX and understanding this ratio may help to highlight where elements of your race need some work.
That’s all for this month. If you’d like to read the news round up from March 2024, click here.
