HYROX Barcelona

"The largest HYROX event ever held on the peninsula has just ended."

This is how I started the chronicle of the HYROX in Malaga a month ago.

Again I repeat exactly the same phrase that seems to have a reduced expiration date.

13,000 athletes registered (10,000 finished) and what is more significant:

Last chance qualifier.

The last chance to qualify for the World Elite 15.

Some great American and Australian athletes traveled to the Catalan capital, and of course all the non-qualified European elite.

All in search of the three first positions that gave direct access to the elite final of the world championship in June in Chicago.

At the popular level, approximately 40% of British, 30% of Spanish, 10% of French and 10% of Irish. French and Irish 10%s filled those thousands of seats.

At the organizational level, the tone of other national HYROX was the same as in other national HYROXs.

Events that are already standardized and that once again show their strengths. Impeccable check in, British schedules and judges predisposed to comply with the rules more than ever. Bravo.

There were also snags.

I would like to highlight three. All three are probably unavoidable.

In my case I got a 55% inside and a 45% outside. I counted it.

If you combine this with the fact that the carpet was gripping more than usualAs a result, the times were not very record-breaking.

Look at this comparison if you add the two partial sleds (in Malaga they were softer sleds).

• Pablo Sanchez 6:49 in Malaga and 7:12 in Barcelona.
• Hugo Hugemarq 6:34 in Malaga and 6:53 in Barcelona.
• Igor Arruti 6:16 in Malaga and 7:10 in Barcelona.

A good handful of elite competitors have complained about how difficult the carpeting was in social networks. 

For example, my darkhorse the Portuguese Joao Rosa or the Belgian favorite Lenna Putters.

The reason seems to be that HYROX global did not want to give advantage to competitors from other waves (in the live web you can see the split times to the second) and did not want to give the image of seeing three supposed winners and that some athlete would come from behind and give the sorpasso.

Let's see, what happened in the qualification for the pro doubles in Paris with Rober Viciedo and Luis Garcia (first despite going out in the last wave).

In the boys there was no overtaking. England's McRoary (two previous sub 58s) was sixth coming out an hour and twenty minutes later than the favorites. Six top 20 contenders also came out in later waves.

In the women's race, there was a breakthrough. HYROX avoided showing the joyful face of America's Kris Ruglosky, only to find out that Switzerland's Melanie Maurer (former long distance duathlon world champion) overtook her as she caught her breath a handful of minutes later.

The Central European qualified in third place despite only seven months of HYROX training.

Two days later, Melanie was still in Barcelona suffering the consequences of the big blackout.

Despite this circumstance, she can be happy because she is already among the top 15 in the world.

The fact that a duathlete with months of training is already among the world's elite is more than an anecdote, it is a new confirmation that HYROX is an eminently endurance sport. 

Athletes with CrossFit backgrounds, let alone strength sports backgrounds, who make it to the world's elite are a rarity.

A world elite that is increasingly filled with triathletes such as Emilio Aguayo.

Summary Elite 15 men

With a crazy pace, the race starts with the first 30 classifieds running at three-thousandths of a second.

Several unknown competitors lead the way to the ski finish with Emilo Aguayo third, fifth Lukas Storah (world champion in 2018 and the first U60 in history) or the Dutch Weersma in sixth gear.

The very tall Dutchman (doubles specialist and with only one sub 60 precisely in the Nice World Cup) comes first out of the sled push with Pablo Sanchez sixth, Storath seventh and Aguayo eighth.

Many of the competitors who started out taking risks begin to decline their pace due to the hardness of the sled and the pace of the race. Sporting corpses begin to appear and the withdrawals accumulate as the competitors find themselves without options.

Two Australians, the favorite resident in Mallorca Jon Wynn and the semi-unknown Tom Rodgers back in the sled pull.

Valencian Aguayo is the one with the best partial results in the race. followed only by Weersma and Rodgers.

The rest of the Spaniards do not appear in the top 10 with Aitor Lizararu, Pablo Sanchez (who had a calf injury) and Robert Viciedo hovering between 10th and 20th place.

Emilio is a different matter. He is continuously holding the top three positions.

He enters the lunges first and is overtaken by the two big surprises of the day, the Australian and the Dutchman.

Storath and Wynn within a minute so it looks like the top three are almost done. 

In the wall balls our local hero, who had lost his gloves during the test, begins to be unable to hit the target on many occasions because the ball slipped. 26 no reps.

Rodgers wins with an insane time on such a slow track, followed by Weersma and third with the wall balls unbroken remonte Jon Wynn.

Emilio took 6:23 in the wall balls. With a logical time for his level he would have probably finished third.

His entry into the world elite is already a fact that he will confirm in the next events he participates in.

Athletes like him will dominate the future of HYROX. To be able to run closer and closer to three thousand and with enough level to do workouts with solvency.

Ranking

1. Rodgers, Tom (AUS) 00:56:05
2. Weersma, Hidde (NED) 00:56:33
3. Wynn, Jonathon (AUS) 00:57:14
4. Voisin, Joffrey (FRA) 00:57:45
5. Ploj, Alen (SLO) 00:57:58

First Spaniards:

13.- Emilio Aguayo - 00:58:48
18.- Roberto Viciedo Gimeno - 00:59:19
21.- Aitor Lizarazu Hormilla - 00:59:29
42.- Pablo Valverde Reyes - 01:01:33
44.- Igor Arruti - 01:01:47
45.- Pablo Sánchez Santos - 01:01:50
47.- Yeray Toquero - 01:02:06
50.- Jorge Gonzalez - 01:02:18

Men qualifying for the Chicago finals:

1.- Tom Rodgers 🇦🇺 - 56:05
2.- Hidde Weersma 🇳🇱 - 56:33
3.- Jonathon Wynn 🇦🇺 - 57:14

Summary women Elite 15

Like the boys, the exit is extremely fast. Zero surprises.

Belgium's Putters leads the ski with England's Sinead Bent close to it.

In the hard sled push, when there was more than a 70% left of the test, much more was defined than we could have thought.

Two of the great favorites, Putters and the English Pierggiani are too late.

The other two big favorites (Germany's Overlander and the Italian Massa) are maintained with some problems in the semi-forward positions.

Just at that moment a new global star emerges. The semi-recognized Dutch Emilie Dahmen (he had 1h03 but had never competed outside his country where the events are usually very fast) not only goes away from all but puts in a good handful of seconds.

Only Sinead Bent follows her at a minimum distance. This Englishwoman with the same name as one of the best voices in music in the last 50 years (DEP Sinead Oconnor) broke the open world record a few months ago. Then Sophia Parvici Wayne (who alternated the first positions for a good part of the race) and later the queen (who alternated the first positions for a good part of the race) and later the queen Weeks beat him again.

By the way, it's amazing how fast the Englishwoman goes and how bad her technique is in almost every workout. Watching her row was a poem by Garcilaso.

From behind with his usual intelligence Manuela Garcia is overtaking the corpses that had tightened in the sleds more than the account.

The Austrian with an unpronounceable surname Stroscheneiderthe U.S. Rugloski and the English Moriarty (as a Sherlock Holmes fan I love this last name) keep some distance with the duo.

The only favorite that keeps the type at least minimally is Massa. While Manuela enters eighth in the lunges. A crazy race with surprise after surprise.

Dahmen, who seems to be the twin sister of Joanna Wiertzyk (I'll never learn this last name) wins with crushing solvency. Sinead to one minute. 

While the Austrian with the unpronounceable surname is very close to the third position but the man with the sledgehammer comes out behind a column and hits her with full force. Rugloski overtook her and took the third position until the Swiss arrived Maurer from another batch and got the coveted slot.

Manuela with problems in the wall balls (something abnormal for her great level in this event) loses some position. If she had done the same time in this workout as in Malaga she would have been around the fifth position.

1. Dahmen, Emilie (NED) 01:01:10
2. Bent, Sinéad (ENG) 01:02:13
3. Maurer, Melanie (SUI) 01:03:20
4. Rugloski, Kris (USA) 01:03:24
5. Vandenlindenloof, Margot (BEL) 01:04:02

Spanish

13.- Manuela Garcia - 01:05:20
34.- Muntsa Ciuró Boixadera - 01:09:49
42.- Noelia Gonzalez Timon - 01:11:46
46.- Marta Maria Real Amengual - 01:12:49
47.- Paula Bernabé - 01:13:16
48.- Melania Timón Sierra - 01:13:27
50.- Jennifer Marín Palacios - 01:14:17

Women qualifying for the Chicago finals:

1.- Emilie Dahmen 🇳🇱 - 1:01:10
2.- Sinéad Bent 🇬🇧 - 1:02:13
3.- Melanie Maurer 🇨🇭 - 1:03:20

Paradigm shift?

Over the last two years a handful of competitors have remained in the Majors and World Elite 15. More and more competitors are knocking on the door and this Barcelona event is perhaps the tipping point for new and fresh competitors to enter the circuit.

Emilio and Manuela are undoubtedly two of them. Each with their own particular characteristics but with a firm conviction and a lot of intelligence, they will join Pelayo sooner rather than later.

Of course Pablo, Aitor and Roberto and a few others will also be on the lookout.

The good thing is that we will enjoy it and I will tell you about it.

Map of HYROX Barcelona