Hybrid Highlights – Your Weekly Hyrox Roundup – Maastricht

Lauren Weeks is back-back

About 15 minutes into The OCR Report coverage, after each commentator had picked their favourites to win, one of the boys acknowledged that no one had even mentioned Lauren Weeks. They went on to discuss how there was a question about her fitness being just 6 months postpartum, but pointed out she’d be keen to make a statement. And… Wow did she do that! From the get go, Lauren Weeks just floored it. She attacked each and every run and looked uncatchable on the track. If this is what Lauren can do six months after childbirth, she’s going to be hard to beat this season.

Linda Meier didn’t start

Going into the race, many had Linda Meier as the favourite to win. She was second in last year’s World Championships and was top of the Hyrox Elite rankings following her performance in Amsterdam at the end of 2022. For currently unknown reasons, Linda Meier did not start the race. Whatever the reason, we wish Linda the best and look forward to her next performance in live competition.

Megan ran an extra lap – could she have won?

During the race, it seemed Megan Jacoby ran an extra lap. Because this was a three+ lap course, this wasn’t quite as devastating as a one or two lap course. However, it did put Megan in a hole she did very well to pull herself out from – making it all the more impressive she finished second! It happened during the run between the sled pull and the burpee broad jumps. Looking at her other run times, we can guess Megan’s lap would have been at least 1:15 quicker. This would have given her a finishing time of 1:01:57, moving her up from third place into second, and just 45 seconds behind Lauren Weeks. If Megan hadn’t have had to do all that extra work and mentally regather herself, could she have beaten Lauren? Who knows… but it sets up an exciting rematch should both make it to Chicargo!

An Epic rematch looks likely on the men’s side too

The early race saw Michael Sandbach and Alexander Roncevic pushing each other through the runs and stations. However, by the end of the event, it was Tim Wenisch who worked himself into the second podium position – Michael taking the third. With a slight adjustment of approach, any of these three guys could have picked up the win and… from what we hear… all three are keen to head down to Chicargo for a rematch. If it happens, it’ll be Epic!

But… Ryan Kent

Anyone wanting to take the win in Chicago will need to get past Ryan Kent – arguably the favourite to win the Hyrox World Championships and dominate the sport now Hunter McIntyre has retired. Kent came second to Hunter in last year’s World Championships and took a comfortable first place with a solid performance at Los Angeles last month, which most feel was a very difficult course.

The sled push spread males and females out

Michael Sandbach and Alexander Roncevic absolutely crushed the sled push – the two went 2:06 and 2:07 respectively. It was on this station the two let each other know they were up for going head-to-head and it stayed this way for the majority of the race. It was similar on the women’s side too. We saw a 1:53 by Mikaela Norman and a 2:00 by Lauren Weeks with a good number of ladies slipping into the 2 minutes and 40 seconds or more. It continues to be a hugely important station if you want to do well in Hyrox.

Available commentary was awesome

With Hyrox not having their own official commentary team, my fellow content creators stood up and offered the community some excellent coverage of the European Championships. Race Brain had Rich Ryan and Dylan Scott offering a pretty laid back watch-along with a ton of insight and opinion and The OCR Report offered a more traditional and professional feeling broadcast with Brakken Kraker, Dave Claxton and Ryan Kent. I ended up watching both streams (one after the other) and was so impressed and grateful for what each offered – they really enhanced the viewing experience. Keep it up, guys!

Hyrox is fun to watch!

When I first got into Hyrox, as a competitor, I wondered whether there was an audience for it as a sport. Could people get excited about watching the same functional fitness event over and over? The more I’ve got to know about Hyrox, understand the challenge, and hear the stories of the athletes at the top of the sport: the more interested I’ve become. The broadcasts this weekend proved to me that, done right, each race can be exciting. I was glued to my screen for both races – that’s down to the incredible athletes and the improving broadcast quality too.

LEVLS APP

LEVLS have joined the ranks of official HYROX training providers. LEVLS is a sleek, modern app that offers a range of training programs for athletes from beginner through to advanced. Their Hyrox program is written by some high level Hyrox Athletes and coaches including Beau Wills, Dr. Alandra Greenlee and Jordan Bryant. The workouts are designed specifically for Hyrox, look genuinely fun and helpful for athletes wishing to improve performance, and work with scientifically backed progressive overload. Depending on where you are in your training and how close you are to a race, you will go through different phases too. At only $19.99 this seems very good value and a cut above many of the ‘template programs’ I’ve seen in the past.

Deka is coming to the UK and EU

Finally! Deka and Hyrox are the two fastest growing functional fitness events in the world right now. DEKA, a Spartan competition, has been building momentum in the US, but beyond events in Tenerife, hasn’t done much in Europe at all. It seemed only a matter of time though, with Hyrox taking off and selling out so regularly in places like the UK, but Spartan hadn’t been quick to confirm anything.

Well, this week they finally did it. We’ll see a small DEKA STRONG event in Clitheroe on 25th February 2023 and then a number of events across Europe; including: Málaga on June 24th, Madrid on July 29th and Tenerife on 18th November. It’s still a slim schedule, but we’re excited that Europeans will have the opportunity to test themselves at another hybrid racing event!