The third Major of the HYROX season takes place this Friday at the HYROX Open European Championships in Vienna. The Elite 15 will have a special Friday evening event for the men and women. The field consists of automatic qualifiers from championships last season as well as the earlier Majors this season and time qualifiers. First, we will break down the men’s auto-qualifiers.

Last year’s World Championships runner-up Alexander Roncevic is looking for a victory in his hometown. His greatest challenge will likely be Ryan Kent who got the best of him earlier this season in Chicago.

Three men earned their Major qualifying spot at the last Major in Stockholm: Beau Wills, Michael Sandbach, and James Kelly. All three look poised for another great race. But, be on the lookout for James Kelly as he is the only one of the three still looking for a World Championship bid.

After getting a roll-down invite to the Chicago Major both Pelayo Menendez Fernandez and Rich Ryan made the most of it and secured a spot at all of the remaining Majors. They are two of the strongest runners in the field and will need to get at least a top 5 spot to secure a spot at Worlds.

Rounding out the auto-qualifiers is last year’s bronze medalist, Tobias Lautwein, and the 2023 North American Champion David Magida. Both have been getting back their fitness and if they are in top form could challenge for the podium.

With 9 auto-qualifiers in the race, there remain 6 spots available based on time. Tim Wenisch has the fastest time of this group with a 56:07 that he ran at Cologne in April ‘23. Joffrey Voisin also has a fast qualifying time of 56:46 that he set in March ‘23. Neither has been able to replicate these results. So, hopefully, they can get back to their old form.

The last two men are Tomas Tvrdik and Lukas Storath. Both achieved their qualifying times a few weeks back in Maastricht. Storath is a HYROX OG and former World Record holder who made his way back to the individual division. Tomas Tvrdik is a very strong competitor who has been part of the Elite 15 before. In the one month between racing in Frankfurt and Maastricht Storath was able to drop 5:26 and Tvrdik 3:58 from their times. If they continue this rate of improvement they will surely be in contention.

Don’t count out the two men who got roll-down bids: Graham Halliday and Jon Wynn. They took 5th and 6th respectively at last year’s World Championships. They both have a shot at securing a bid for the World Championships in Nice.

Photos by Fitness Racing Podcast.