HYROX Malaga

Malaga is getting ready for HYROX 2025, a highly anticipated sporting event to be held March 21-23 at the FYCMA.

Malaga will host an exciting edition of the HYROX event, in which outstanding international and local athletes will participate, promising spectacle and high performance.

Chronicle of the competition

Saturday 8:30 AM. 

I'm about to go out on the first wave of the day. Personally I like to say hello and chat during the previous minutes in the start tunnel. 

This time, although I am in Malaga, I will either do it in English or it will be complicated. Of the more than 50 athletes that we are about to start there are only four Spaniards. From UK there are 26 athletes.

I leave you some simple data as a sample.

Participants by country in the women's Open category:

• UK: 382
• Ireland: 209
• Spain: 146

The HYROX Malaga 2025 is the largest hybrid race ever held on the peninsula. 

An event where an athlete has given a crazy exhibition. Who is also becoming a mix of hybrid rock star and maybe future elite athlete 15.

An event where an athlete is growing so much and so fast that you can't even guess where her limit is.

An event that demonstrates the great influence of the HYROX boom from the UK and Ireland in Spain. 

So much so that in three years HYROX Iberia has gone from being a company that used to organize one rare career to be in possession of a goose that lays golden eggs. 

Beyond the sporting and business aspects, I have a question: Do you give away tattoo ink in the UK?

The event

Tom Hogan is one of the best Irish HYROX riders. He once held the world record for doubles with Hunter. I am told that he organized a trip with 60 competitors (and their families) to do the event and spend 5 days on the Costa del Sol.

This is just one example of what HYROX is becoming.

I am not going to open this melon in this chronicle but I want to leave a note. I have traveled alone and I have spent 400 bucks (registration and travel apart) in a day and a half of stay. What is the economic impact of the 11,000 attendees and their companions?

There are currently 5 HYROX in the British Isles. London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin (soon to be released in Wales with Cardiff).

These are multi-day events (4 and even 5 days) that not only sell out (in Glasgow last week there were over 20,000 registrants) but also sell out in hours or even minutes. 

Many Britons find Spain a place to compete, with good flight connections and the tourism factor. Malaga was the first three-day event in Spain with more than 10,000 registered participants. 

Many people tell me that HYROX is very expensive. That every competition is a bundle. 🤑

This is just a consequence of the law of supply and demand. 

The event was organizationally similar to other events this spring. (Bilbao and Valencia). The difference has been in the further massification. Check in without queues but a lot of traffic when double waves coincide.

The race was fast despite having to run three laps per kilometer. The big difference with other races is in the carpeting of the sleds. I don't know the exact reason, less humidity and/or better placement?

As a sample Valencia had some tough sleds (the brand of Emilio Aguayo there it has a very large absolute value) and in Malaga they slid more smoothly.

In Valencia, the average of the 10 best pro men in the sled push was 3:00 and in the sled pull 4:20.

In Malaga 2:35 in the push and 3:30 in the pull.

It is true that in Malaga there was a higher average level and that the British are bad beasts. Even so, a minute and a quarter difference between these two events is really significant.

Pro Results

Hugo Hugemarq is a Swede living in Spain. He works at the Playitas sports center in Fuerteventura.

So far the most outstanding thing he has done was two HYROX PRO close to the hour in Bilbao and below the hour in Copenhagen (Aitor Lizarazu did 3 min less than him).

In Malaga it was a different story.

On Friday, the American won in pro Gaby Heck. Competitor elite 15 (entered at 18 seconds of Pelayo in the Hong Kong Major). 

A dozen seconds later Hugo entered but was disqualified. I guess that the reason was related to some irregularity in the Wall balls (he did them in 2:50).

Saturday was the top race as there was a higher average level than Friday. The overall winner would come out of the comparison between the two.

A plethora of foreigners starts the race squeezing the favorite. The Grenadian Pablo Sanchez was the best runner of all. He had just finished 58 minutes in Bilbao and put in trouble to Roncevic in the European. The rest were at least 1.86 meters tall and weighed at least 1.86 and 90 kg of tattooed muscles.

They stood out apart from Hugo, Marc Dean (winner of the world doubles championship together with Jake Dearden at Nice 24) and Bodger Rees an Englishman of at least 1.92 who demonstrated a brutal level in sleds and ergometers.

Paul cuts the run and in the burpees reached the lead. Hugo in the rowing goes again (he has a level in top 3 world ergometers) and a very nice fight was maintained between the two until the Wall balls decided the race for the Swede.

Hugo from doing a great race showed a very flashy aesthetic (sunglasses included), continuously encouraging the public to cheer. Hunter Style.

The Andalusian got the fourth best Spanish time in history. According to the classification system for the majors right now, with a sub 56:40 time he would be in the fight for next year.

This is the final classification

Men

🥇 Hugo Hugemarq - 🇸🇪 - 00:56:32
🥈 Pablo Sánchez Santos - 🇪🇸 - 00:57:19
🥉 Gabe Heck - 🇺🇸 - 00:57:57
4th: Marc Dean - 🇬🇧 - 00:58:18
5th: Bodger Rees - 🇬🇧 - 00:58:31

Important to note: 

Igor Arruti finally under the hour with a smart race from less to more. With 58:39 he ties with Emilio Aguayo with the 13th best Spanish record in history. He is only surpassed by Pelayo, Aitor, Pablo and Emilio himself.

Great success also for the Galician Rubén Patiño who two years ago was the second Spaniard to go under the hour and who repeats now in Malaga. 59:08. Ruben does not have the best conditions to train due to work issues. If everything goes well next year he will be able to train much better. We must be very attentive to his evolution.

The one who for me was the hero of the weekend just two years ago was the first Spaniard to go under an hour also in Malaga. Alfons Deu He ran with a pretty important sprain. With a swollen and bruised foot, he showed that no one can beat him as a fighter and a stubborn person. 1h00 The Ibizan is always an example. 

Alex Anasagasti made the best time of a high level Spanish crossfitter and if my calculations do not fail me, it would be the second best in the world (after the time of Ricky Garard) with 1h02. I asked him about it and he said this is too long for him. Also that he's training one day a week with Igor Arruti and Aitor Lizarazu in Denontza (Hernani) and is helping him a lot.

Men's doubles

The U24 world champion and runner-up, Roberto Viciedo and Luis García Rubio made nothing less than the 15th best time in history at world level and record in Spain (52:04). Rober, who is training very well, only has to wait for a good race to make the mark he is worth. Luis is only focused on winning the U24 World Championship in Chicago (he is already European champion).

Footballer and World Cup winner debuted in Open David Silva next to the great Ivan Martos.

Also at double Open the CEO of HYROX Iberia Álvaro Taracena came down from the hour together with Alvaro Simonone of HYROX's most important workers, came down from the hour.

It's cool that the people responsible for all this are really involved athletes.

Women

In the chronicle of Valencia I told you about Manuela Garcia and its aura.

There he won with 1h0518 showing the aura of a top level HYROX athlete.

In Malaga has gone a step further and the brand that has achieved 1h03:50, apart from the Spanish record. is the 21st best mark of the current season worldwide.

That minute and a half improvement came only from 40 seconds of difference from the sleds.

A couple more data to evaluate Manuela's progression. She was the winner of Malaga last year with 7 minutes and fifteen seconds difference in one year. Six minutes has cut the Spanish record of CrossFiter Sílvia García in just half a year,

If you add the two best races (Valencia and Malaga -1:05:18 and 1:03:50) they average 1:04:38. 

For next season's Majors classification, she is already close to the positions that give a place if there are roll downs (resignations of athletes that give a place to those who are classified below them).

And to finish with the data, the second was France. Jezebel Kremer (she participated on Friday) ten days before she had run the Glasgow Major. Manuela took her out by more than two minutes.

The pleasant surprise of the day was the third place finish of Noelia González Timón. The former swimmer, at the moment she believed in it and consolidated months of hard training, has made a crazy mark.

1h07:58 Third best Spanish in history (it would have been a Spanish record a few months ago). Noelia joins Sandra Dominguez and Elena Rouco as candidates for the international elite.

Although she did not participate in Malaga (she lives in Chicago) I want to point out that Elena qualified in Houston for the elite 15 doubles final of the World Championship in her city of residence. She is the second Spaniard to do so after her husband Pelayo.

This is the final ranking:

🥇 Manuela Garcia - 🇪🇸 - 01:03:50
🥈 Jezebel Kremer - 🇫🇷 - 01:06:04
🥉 Noelia González Timón - 🇪🇸 - 01:07:57
4th: Emily Doris Meakin - 🇬🇧 - 01:08:06
5th: Katrina Hamilton - 🇬🇧 - 01:08:07

Only one HYROX is left in this season and in addition the most important. 

Barcelona at the end of April where several Spaniards will fight for one of the first three positions that give access to the elite 15 final of the world championship.

A Paul, Emilio and Aitor joins on its own merits Manuela. Really difficult but not impossible.

A week before at the HYROX in Paris, several Spanish couples will fight to qualify for the doubles final. The same weekend Pelayo along with the American Rich Ryan will also try to qualify in Miami. 

All of them have a hard time except the Asturian as they are favorites, in my opinion, as much as any other pair to win the world championship.

In any case, you will be informed about it here.

Map of HYROX Malaga

HYROX Malaga promises to become a point of reference for international and local athletes, consolidating the city as a sports epicenter during this weekend.