The 2020 HYROX World Championships Set to Release on Jan. 1, 2021
The HYROX World Series of Fitness is promoted as a worldwide fitness competition for everybody. These races call for the competitors to run for a total distance of eight kilometers, with a “break” between each kilometer to complete a different workout. Even though both professional and recreational athletes are eligible to participate, there is a world championship event that only 12 — six men and six women — competitors advance to.
This year’s HYROX World Championship has already taken place, on Dec. 12, 2020, in Hamburg, Germany. It was scheduled to happen a month earlier in Amsterdam, but because of travel and gathering restrictions due to COVID-19, organizers kept the event close to home in Hamberg, where, according to HYROX.com, the sport was founded. Though the event is wrapped, HYROX isn’t airing the footage until Jan. 1, 2020, according to a post made to their Instagram account. At the time this article was written, information on how to watch the event is limited. That same Instagram posted said, “On HYROXWORLD.” We do know the athletes that took part in the event, and some of them are among the elite in CrossFit.
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CrossFit Athletes Who Compete in HYROX
Here’s a list of the top CrossFit women and men who tested their strength, endurance, and grit in this year’s HYROX World Championships.
Samantha Briggs
The 2013 Fittest Woman on Earth® is still among the elite athletes on the planet — and one of the busiest. In addition to competing in HYROX, Briggs also competed in the 2020 CrossFit Games, where she finished 25th overall, and at the inaugural Spartan Games — a fitness competition hosted by Spartan Race.
Lauren Weeks
Weeks is also experienced in both CrossFit and obstacle course racing (OCR). One of Weeks’ best performances in CrossFit was at the 2017 Regionals, where she placed 14th overall. She also has been a part of the renowned 2018 Tough Mudder X World Championship event, where she placed fourth, and, more recently, Weeks won the HYROX Home Series event — a five-week-long online competition that took place from March through April 2020.
Hunter McIntyre
McIntyre was a part of the 2019 CrossFit Games, but he’s really made his bones in obstacle course racing (OCR). According to his website, he’s won six OCR World Championships, Stone Cold Steve Austin’s “Broken Skull Challenge,” and the Tough Mudder X Championship in 2017 and 2018. “The Sherrif” also has a HYROX win under his belt by snagging the W at an event in Dallas, TX, in February 2020.
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Adam Klink
Klink has competed as high as Regionals in CrossFit but has yet to compete in the Games. Klink is also a head coach for Ben Smith’s CrossFit Krypton affiliate. He made news earlier in 2020 when he ran a sub-five-minute mile and back squatted 500 pounds in the same day.
The other athletes that make up this year’s HYROX World Championship lineup are listed below.
Women
- Imke Salander is a runner out of Germany. She was qualified for this event, but she withdrew due to a strained adductor injury.
- Sarah Kholti holds a HYROX world record time of 1:05:33 under her belt. She is also a triathlete.
- Viola Oberlander is based out of Munich. She competed in a HYROX event in February and finished in less than 1:10:00
- Linda Meier is the final female athlete in this lineup. Her last competitive time was third among all women with a time of 1:09:59.
Men
- Markus Frison is this year’s Virtual Championship of Fitness (VCF) winner.
- Lukas Storath won a HYROX event at Karlsruhe, Germany, with a time of 0:59:32.
- Tobias Lautwein competes in HYROX and cycling. He is also considered an elite obstacle course racer. His personal best HYROX time is 59:12.
- Tim Schroder is a seasoned HYROX competitor out of Germany. He was ranked eighth in their most recent VCF event.
What is HYROX?
HYROX combines running with functional fitness events to create a grueling test of strength and conditioning. Each HYROX competition consists of three steps:
- Step 1 — One Kilometer Run
- Step 2 — One Functional Workout
- Step 3 — Repeat steps one and two eight times.
Elite HYROX athletes usually finish the race in around an hour. An example workout on Brigg’s Instagram mentioned workouts like sled pushes, sled pulls, farmer’s walks, wall balls between runs.
Stay tuned, as we’ll be updating this article with the results once they’re made available.
Featured Image:@hyroxworld on Instagram