Regular readers of The Hybrid Experiment will know that we’re keen to shine a light on the amazing Hyrox athletes competing around the world. Interestingly, despite athletes of all nationalities arriving in Manchester to scope out the World Championship venue and take on this event, the winner of the Pro race on both the men’s and women’s side – Graham Halliday and Felicity Cole – were British.
We were keen to learn a bit more about them, their training leading up to the race, how it felt to win at Manchester and what’s coming up next!
Graham Halliday
Graham is a personal trainer and coach over at Elation Fitness in Glasgow. Interestingly, until about 2 or 3 years ago Graham’s training was focused primarily on bodybuilding-style workouts for aesthetics. He then started throwing in some CrossFit-style workouts and found a passion for it. This new found love of functional fitness led him to entering his first ever Hyrox just over a year ago: Manchester in January 2022. For those interested, at that event, Graham finished 16th in the Pro division with a time of 01:09:56.
Here’s our chat with Graham:
How was your training going into this event? Anything you changed that led to the result?
My training was all focused towards increasing my running. Funnily enough it didn’t show on the day of the event. Although my other fitness tests showed that I was fitter at running.
How does it feel to win such a big event like Manchester?
It feels really good as this is my fourth event. Manchester was also my very first event a year ago.
Any observations about the race?
I feel like the runs felt a tad longer than the usual courses. The Rox zone area was the smallest one yet though. The prowler was a bit of a pain, my carpet kept rippling up, so it was making it even more difficult to move.
What’s the plan now?
I have Glasgow Hyrox on the 11th of Feb. So it was the case of really just get back to training and recover harder.
Felicity Cole
Felicity has a strong background in athletics and running, having competed regularly at a range of distances since school and college. A bit like Graham, Felicity spent some time training for aesthetics, but quickly found herself craving a return to competition and performance. Felicity ended up running a marathon in under 3 hours, podiuming in multiple running races and triathlons, and winning The Assault OCR at Mike’s Gym. Her first individual Hyrox was in the Pro category at London in 2022.
Here’s our chat with Felicity:
How was your training going into this event? Anything you changed that led to the result?
I had Manchester in the calendar for a long time but ended up qualifying for the Elite 15 in the European Champs the weekend before, so Manchester then became more of a just do it for the fun race. So probably what changed was my mindset, I was way more relaxed!
How does it feel to win such a big event like Manchester?
It feels amazing to get a home country win, especially as my family were watching it made it feel even more special. I had a massive shoe fail in my first individual race in London April 2022, so to comeback from that feels good too!
Any observations about the race?
The venue was my favourite so far and the energy from the crowd was fantastic. The run course was definitely a long, slow one (3 laps, so lots of tight corners) and very crowded, so impossible to get to desired run speed. The longer run played to my strengths, but not so good for getting a fast time!
What’s next for you in terms of training and races?
I was supposed to be doing the North American Champs in Chicago as part of the Elite 15, but disappointingly I’m unable to enter the US still as I’m not vaccinated.
So I’m going to start a new 6 week block of training until my next races in Barcelona and/or Stockholm to continue to build on what I have been doing.
My goal is to try to stay in the Elite 15 for the World Championships which is going to be a challenge for sure with all the amazing athletes coming through but that is the goal!
Huge congratulations to both Felicity and Graham, we can’t wait to see what they do for the rest of the season!