Hybrid Highlights – Your Weekly Hyrox Roundup – Manchester

Roncevic & Lousa’s World Record Attempt

There was a lot of anticipation over the weekend of a new world record being set in the male doubles division. Alexander Roncevic and Tiago Lousa, who hold the two fastest Hyrox individual times of the season so far, came to Manchester to challenge the 48 minutes and 52 seconds record set by Michael Sandbach and Tim Wenisch last year.

On the day, Alexander Roncevic and Tiago won the Manchester Hyrox Male Doubles with a time of 52minutes exactly. This was almost 5 minutes ahead of second place (56:50), but just over 3 minutes off the world record. There was a lot of speculation that the Manchester course was one of the slower courses to date, but, to their credit, neither Alexander or Tiago claimed this would have made the difference.

In fact, after the race Alexander said: “We fought, we struggled and we pushed each other through the race. Even if it‘s a double you‘re still going through hell but you‘re doing it together which makes it just a little bit easier. Shout-out to [Michael Sandbach] and [Tim Wenisch] for the crazy WR they set back in Amsterdam, we weren‘t even close to their time, they really crushed it!”

Many felt the course resulted in slower times

Many athletes feel the course in Manchester was significantly slower than other recent courses. A few theories on why this could be have popped up:

• A number of athletes felt the course was a bit longer overall in terms of distance.
• Three laps meant more turns and a requirement to slowdown and speed back up more often – meaning your overall average speed and potential energy expenditure was higher.

To be honest, I try not to get too heavily involved in these debates, because it’s impossible for me to know the answer. I think Hyrox do an incredible job at making each and every course VERY similar. However, due to the shape of venues, the material the floor is made of, the temperature, the humidity, the age of equipment on a certain day – it’s impossible to ensure each and every race is exactly the same.

How was your training going into this event?
I’m an Endurance Zone (Tiago Lousa) athlete and my training is according to this ongoing plan. The results don’t just arrive after a month of training: it’s necessary to be consistent and trust the training process.

How does it feel to podium such a big event?
It’s always good to win or finish on the podium. It’s good to see the results of our hard work and one more good reason to keep working!

Any observations about the race?
Manchester was the most beautiful venue I’ve done. Lots of people and great energy.

What’s the plan for you now?
Keep working. There is still a lot to improve. In less than 2 weeks, I will be back racing in Bilbao. I’m also going to Barcelona in March and there is still a date to choose before the World Championships.

The Rich Ryan Situation

As things stand, numerous notable American Hyrox athletes will not be allowed to enter Chicargo’s American Championships on 11th February 2023. This includes America’s Rich Ryan, who finished 7th overall in last year’s World Championship and second to Ryan Kent (favourite to win this year’s World Championship) in Los Angeles earlier this season. The Hyrox rulebook states because Rich does not have a Top 15 time he is not automatically invited and because he does not have a Top 30 time, even if more than 15 athletes decline their spots, there is no chance he can be considered for the Chicago event.

Athletes, especially American athletes, have argued that with Americans having less opportunities to race (with less Hyrox races in America compared to Europe) and American courses seeming to result in slower times than European courses (for whatever reason), the current system is shutting Americans out of the Elite 15 – highlighted by the fact that only one American got an automatic invite to the Elite 15 race on the male side of the North American Championships.

The good news is that Hyrox’s Mintra Tilly – Head of Sport and Global Race Director- has been keen to talk about this and made clear that Hyrox are ready and willing to work with athletes and the broader community to find a solution for next season. The bad news is, for now, Rich Ryan and co will have to sit on the sidelines whilst the Hyrox Elite race takes place in their home country.

Hyrox is heading to Miami!

Hyrox has announced what they believe will be their biggest and most exciting event in America so far: Hyrox Miami on Thursday, 23rd March, through Sunday, 26th March 2023. Significantly, Hyrox will be ‘powering’ a huge 4-day ‘Fitness Festival’ on Miami Beach that will include not only a full Hyrox schedule, but live music and many other health and fitness attractions too. It sounds very much like the hugely popular Wodapalooza Fitness Festival that’s held in Miami each January; exciting, because Wodapalooza is one of CrossFit’s most popular and loved events of the calendar year. Hyrox America is playing catch-up to Europe in terms of events and participation, but they believe US entrants will double to 30,000 this season, and an event like this should all but guarantee it! More info here.

Built For Athletes released this Hyrox-themed Bag 🤤

Built For Athletes recently announced that they have become official partners of HYROX UK for the remainder of the season 2022/2023 season. They certainly made a splash in Manchester, when they arrived with a literal truck full of these absolutely beautiful black and yellow Hyrox-themed bags. The Hero 2.0 bag is available on the Built For Athletes website, but if you want a patch you’ll need to hunt them down at a UK Hyrox event this season.