HYROX Bilbao

The weekend of February 15 and 16 was held in Bilbao the HYROX with the highest level that has been done in Spain in the men's pro category.

Many Spaniards have made great marks overcoming a glass ceiling that seemed difficult to break. 

A HYROX where there has been controversy with the organization but with great success of participation. 

Read on and you will find out everything that has happened in the great Basque town.

Organization of the event. First experience doubling categories.

Since HYROX started three and a half years ago, its events in Spain have always been held over the course of a day.

A long and intense day where the waves started at 9:00 a.m. and every ten minutes ended after 20:00.

The boom in participation led HYROX Iberia to propose the first two-day event in Madrid in October 2024, splitting the categories between the two days.

Bilbao was initially proposed for one day.

The fast sold out (one of the most common words in this new sport lately) and the large demand, despite the continuous increase in prices, encouraged the organizers to hold an extra day of competition. Saturday the 15th was joined by Sunday the 16th and Bilbao has been the first venue with this format in Spain.

Not being able to move categories of days the least bad decision was to repeat all Saturday categories throughout Sunday. This leads to two problems.

I think these are two minor problems and only influence a small percentage of the participants.

As a fact HYROX has 9 categories. 5 doubles (pro and open of each and mixed) and 4 singles (pro and open of each) and 10 age groups in each of them, so there are 410 people who climb the podium (7% of the participants).

Where is HYROX Bilbao held?

The location of the event was at the Bilbao Exhibition center which is an ideal place to organize a HYROX. The best event location in Spain in my opinion.

There was a change of pavilion to a bigger one (or at least that's how it seemed to me) compared to the two previous editions, so we experienced an event with plenty of space and colorful.

The design of the event map was good. Each time HYROX Iberia has it more polished and the layout of the workout area was very comfortable, the roxzone simple and the race course correct. 

Not everything is flowers for the organization. After commenting on the main winners I am going to go into the main failure that the competitors experienced. It is something that HYROX must solve in future events.

Pro Men's Race

As I mentioned in the intro, Saturday's outing pro men was the highest average level that there has been in Spain "ever".

This is because world-class foreigners from the world's elite but above all to the fact that the average level of Spanish people is rising like crazy.

The winner in pro men was the favorite. English, influencer (600,000 followers on Instagram) and elite competitor15 Jake Dearden won with a lead of more than one minute.

The other three favorites were fellow elite15 competitor and fellow Briton Sadiq Elfitouri (he was second although he ran without rivals in Sunday's start), the second best Spanish ever Aitor Lizarazu (third on his home turf with his second best time) and the also elite 15 Danish Sebastian Ifversen (fourth).

This was not the case at the finish Pablo Sanchez (fifth) came in ahead of Aitor and Ifversen.

A 10-second penalty dropped him 2 positions.

Pablo is a high level athlete who is successfully landing in HYROX. This was his first pro test (won the open in Madrid a few months ago) and has already made an elite European time. 

Another who made his pro debut doing his second HYROX was former Valencian triathlete Emilio Aguayowho in his first participation won the London HYROX in the open category, beating the Spanish record. On this occasion, he finished in sixth place.

Many of us think that Emilio has everything it takes to be among the world elite. Considering that he has been training HYROX for a few months and that he has gone under 59 minutes in pro in his debut, it seems to be a statement with little risk of being wrong.

In the three and a half years that HYROX has been in Spain, going under an hour in pro men was a challenge for a select few.

Until Bilbao 2025 only four Spaniards had achieved it.

National heroes were the fourth in the world Pelayo Menendez, Aitor Lizarazu, Alfons Deu and Rubén Patiño. In Bilbao, four more joined the party:

Pablo Sanchez 58:38
Emilio Aguayo 58:39
Pablo Valverde 59:26
Samuel Pimentel 59:45

The Andalusian Pablo Valverdewho comes from CrossFit, as soon as he has improved his running level, he has entered the national elite.

The Canary Islander Samuel Pimentel (third in the world in the age group 40/44 years) confirms something that was bordering on several events ago.

Another who also went under the hour and for a silly 2 minutes penalty lost the glory is the third of the world age group 25/29 Igor Arruti. Exactly he took a foot out of the Out arc instead of the In arc although he rectified instantly the chip read it and he lost his sub 60. 

The CrossFitter Alex Anasagasti participated with 1h 07m, 11 minutes from Dearden.

It is important to note that several top Spanish competitors did not compete in Bilbao.

The reason is that the following weekend is the European Age Group Championship.

The U24 world champion (Robert Viciedo), the U24 world runner-up (Luis Garcia), the third in the October pro madrid (Jorge Gonzalez), the best Spanish ever (Manuela Garcia) and 7th in the world under 24 Paula Bernabe were reserved for Vienna.

Women's race

Saturday's winner was a relative surprise.

Sandra Dominguez who got a big lead over her rivals was an unknown to most of the attendees.

At the 2024 World Cup in Nice, he had already made a great run in the Mixed Doubles (with his partner Angel Amat) but the Bilbao success caught many of us off the radar despite the fact that a year ago, also in Bilbao, he broke the Spanish open record.

Sandra who used to run mountain trails, works in a CrossFit box, has become the third best Spaniard ever in pro.

The winner by 35 seconds was Ireland's Roisin Evan who participated on Sunday.

Third, the Portuguese winner of the famous HYROX in Berlin last year. Tania Cruz.

Other outstanding Spaniards 6th Jennifer Martin who I personally did not know, 7th the Galician triathlete Silvia Garcia who is getting better and better, and 8th the Huelva Alba Lopeza member of the Spanish relay team for the 2024 World Championships in Nice.

CrossFitter and Spanish record holder until a few months ago, Silvia Garcia (sepius) did not run a race according to her level, finishing 13th (1h15:36) 8 minutes from the Irish.

Double pro race

The Madrileños Pepe Salama and Pedro Toral swept away.

Not only did they beat the Spanish record by a minute and a half, but they also made the 36th best world record of history 53:36. Interestingly, 12 seconds longer than the pro world record by Hunter McIntyre.

In girls Sepius made up for it with the Danish resident in Mallorca. Jacqueline Dahlstrom winning with 1h02:19 (41st best time in the world).

In the Mixed category, the winners were the Madrid Dani Redondo (who does not miss a beat) with the athlete (sub 37 in 10k) Ainegue del Olmo with 57:24.

Problems with volunteers

As you have read at the beginning of the article, the grade of the event at a structural level is at least a high mark. Fast check in, roxzone, crossing point and warm up area controlled but there were problems.

The lack of volunteers meant that many workouts were poorly monitored.

Many competitors (in the sled pull and the burpees broad jump mainly) did not respect the standards of movement without any type of control.

The truth is that the athlete is responsible for complying with the rules but cheaters or inexperienced people had moments where they were at ease. 

The main problem was the lack of volunteers, which meant that during several moments the competitors could not make walls balls waiting for a judge to arrive. 

What I am going to tell you below I did not see it live so I cannot say for sure, but several people have confirmed it to me.

The organization was asking competitors who had finished to act as judges to count wall ball reps. During Sunday there were judges who counted two participants at the same time. The athletes who had to wait theoretically had their waiting time deducted.

This is a serious problem that I am sure HYROX will resolve in the future as it usually does when there have been circumstances that could be improved. Several people who have volunteered at past events tell me that as time goes on it is less motivating to volunteer. They receive less and less (I am unaware of this) and are required to stay longer to get discounts for future HYROX.

Be that as it may, my grade for the event is a B+.

HYROX Spain has reached a brutal level of organization. (people who have competed abroad know this).

This was only the second event of the season. Valencia, Malaga and Barcelona remain in the coming weeks. We will keep you informed.