March 2024 was a jam-packed month in the world of HYROX. Below we take a brief look at the news from the world’s fastest growing (and best?) sport which includes the last of the “Major” races for the season, numerous other top-quality events (with some record-breaking performances and familiar faces), event and partnership announcements, a book release, a new race at the World Championships and lots more…
Washington D.C
The month started in the USA capital, Washington D.C., at the HYROX North American Championships. The Friday night held the last of the “Major” races for the season, with the Elite 15 men and women battling it out, for prize money, bragging rights and, perhaps most importantly, a place at the Elite races for the World Championships in Nice.
The Women’s race was exciting from start to finish, with reigning world champion, Lauren Weeks, ultimately emerging victorious in a time of 01:01:20. This was the second Major win of the season for Weeks following her record-breaking performance in Vienna just three weeks prior. Linda Meier secured second place in a time of 01:02:37, after briefly leading the race following a particularly impressive sled pull. Despite not holding on to the lead this will have been a hugely encouraging performance for Meier after finishing 3rd in the previous 3 major races. Megan Jacoby, the winner of the first two majors of the season, claimed third place with a time of 01:02:37. Vivian Tafuto and Lauren Griffith rounded out the top five finishers. The top 4 finishers had already claimed their place in Nice, which meant that the 5th place finish for Griffith was enough for her to also book her spot.
In the Men’s race, a remarkable performance from Dylan Scott saw him take the victory in a time of 56:37. Scott impressed throughout the race, both in the running and on the stations, after setting a PB in Fort Lauderdale just one week prior. His last two performances, in particular, must have made him one of the favourites for a podium spot in Nice.
Despite entering the wall ball station in sixth place, Graham Halliday surprised almost everyone (except, perhaps, himself) when was second to cross the line, following 100 unbroken wall balls that will surely go down in HYROX history (see this post).
Third place was claimed by Rich Ryan who crossed the line in 00:58:16 after a fantastic battle throughout the race with Lukas Storath and Colin Stiefer in particular. The top three finishers (Scott, Halliday, Ryan) all secured their spots at the World Championships in Nice. For a full write up of the D.C. event, click here.
Those races, and qualifying athletes, means that, in total, 12 guys and 8 women are now in the Elite 15 lineups for Nice (for a full list of who they are check out our 2024 World Championships article). The remaining places (to get 15 athletes in each race) will be earned at the “Last Chance Qualifiers”, which will take place in Cologne and Anaheim.
Rox Lyfe’s Greg, and Lauren Smith, both got to sit with Dylan Scott and Lauren Griffiths the morning after the race for the latest episode of “Champs ‘n Coffee”. You can watch that here.
Other Events
Other HYROX events took place during the month including Houston, Copenhagen, Karlsruhe, Madrid, and Glasgow. There were several impressive performances at all of those, and numerous age group world record broken. Click the links for our full write up of each race.
One thing of note at the Houston event was the debut appearance (as part of a trial) of wall ball counters. These automatically added a rep when the ball accurately hit the target. A judge was still on hand and could override the system, reducing the rep count if proper movement standards (e.g. sufficient depth) weren’t followed. The rumour is we’ll see these at most events from 2025 but we’ll keep you posted as and when we know more (be sure to sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page so you don’t miss anything).
There were also a few well-known sportspeople competing in those events during March; CrossFit Games athletes Mal O’Brien and Kristi O’Connell both raced in Houston (we since interviewed Kristi on the Rox Lyfe podcast), and ex-World Champion Ironman, Sebastian Kienle, raced in Karlsruhe.
Another name who has been well-known in the world of HYROX for some time now is Mirjam Van Rohr. She appeared in the Women’s Pro Doubles in Karlsruhe and took the overall win for the day. Mirjam was the HYROX European Champion in 2022, and finished 3rd at the World Championships in the same year. She is one of the fastest women ever in the sport, and the young athlete is now making her mark in the world of CrossFit, having just won the 2024 CrossFit Open. Read more here.
Events Announcements
HYROX have announced another event at the impressive Singapore National Stadium on 29th June 2024. This has to be one of the more impressive venues that a HYROX has been held at and there is sure to be a lot of demand for the event.
Also, another day was added to HYROX Birmingham in October (making it a 3 day event) to help satisfy the incredible demand, and the first event to be announced for the DACH 24/25 season is Hamburg, a 2 day event in the home city of HYROX.
Other News
20 countries will have a team each at the HYROX World Championships in Nice, battling it out in a Mixed Relay race. Team captains have been chosen to lead their country and it is those who are responsible for picking the team members. To find out more, including the 20 countries and their team captains, click here. And to suggest potential team members, check out our Instagram post.
HYROX America have announced a partnership with GiGi’s playhouse, a network of Down syndrome Achievement Centers that offer free therapeutic and educational programming to individuals with Down syndrome. They will aim to meaningfully increase awareness and acceptance of people with Down syndrome in the wider gym and fitness community. Read more here.
A few months ago, we had Dr. Phil Price on the Rox Lyfe podcast. It was one of our most popular episodes ever with some brilliant insights. Well, Phil is now back with his own podcast – The Progress Theory – and recently interviewed me (Greg) as we went deep into HYROX, the training for it, where the sport is heading, traits of the Elite, and more. Listen here (or wherever you get your podcasts). During the month, Dr Phil also published his own book on “The Science of Hybrid Training” – a great read for those of you who look to geek out on the training side of sport.
Towards the end of February, we saw the first outing of the new HYROX equipment from Centr. The debut appearance was at the Fort Lauderdale event, and it was then used the following week in Washington DC. It is believed the equipment will first be used in Europe from the Cologne event onwards, and eventually be used at all events globally. There are new sleds, sled pull ropes, sandbags for the lunges, kettlebells, and wall balls. Overall, so far, the feedback from athletes who have used the equipment has been very positive. Read more here.
Articles
A couple of new articles to draw your attention to include this look at where a HYROX race is won, with some interesting data around just how early the eventual winner of the recent Elite major races has taken the lead. We often talk about pacing yourself in HYROX, but if you want to win a Major race these days, it seems you need to start out quick!
We also put together this hugely valuable article that looks at possible reasons why you may not be improving in your HYROX performances, despite putting in good, consistent periods of training. Could any of these factors be causing you to stagnate?
Podcasts
The Rox Lyfe podcast has been going from strength to strength in recent months, and in March we had our record number of downloads ever. The episodes we released in the month were interviews with Rich Ryan, Tim Wenisch, Jess Towl, and Kristi O’Connell – what a group of athletes!
Additionally, our interview with Ben Bergeron was released on the Chasing Excellence podcast (one of the most popular in the world of CrossFit).
Socials
A few discussion points on our Instagram account in the past month have been around whether HYROX should consider increasing the weights, especially in the Elite races. With an increasing number of athletes able to go unbroken on the wall balls, for example, and sled times dramatically increasing, we posed the question around whether it made sense to up the weights at some point. Have a read of the comments here.
We also had some great suggestions come in around your dream location for a HYROX event. With Berlin and NYC upcoming – both with outdoor elements to them in iconic locations – plus the Singapore announcement in the impressive National Stadium, it got us thinking about where would be a cool venue. Have your say here (the powers that be at HYROX might just be watching and taking notes!).
That’s all for this monthly news round up. Let us know what you thought. Was it useful? Anything we missed? To read the news roundup for April 2024, click here.
