On Saturday, August 12, 2023, we got to witness the highly anticipated HYROX debut of elite CrossFit athletes, Ricky Garard and James Newbury. Newbury has been competing in CrossFit since 2011 and has been to the Games 4 times, finishing 5th in 2019. Ricky started CrossFitting in 2012 and has been to the Games twice, finishing 3rd in 2022. He qualified but was unable to compete in 2023 because of an injured shoulder he sustained during a nasty mountain bike crash.

HYROX veteran James Kelly would also toe the start line, as would 4-time finisher Chris Woolley. Many were curious to see how the CrossFitters would perform against two seasoned hybrid athletes like James & Chris.

Newbury had a great race, finishing 5th in a respectable time of 1:04:36. He never really challenged for the podium, but stayed consistent throughout.

Woolley was comfortably in second place for much of the race and was second behind Kelly to reach the wall balls, the final station. Chris received several no reps on his wall balls and was struggling to do more than 4-5 reps at a time. This opened the door for Garard, who crushed his final 100 wall balls, unbroken, in 3:24 to overtake Woolley for 2nd. Woolley hung on for a 3rd place finish.

But it was James Kelly who took an early lead and never relinquished it. Ricky stayed with him through the first 3 stations, but once James inched ahead, he only grew his lead from there. Let’s take a look at how James not only held off Ricky but ended up running away with it. We’ll also examine where Ricky could have performed better to have a shot at overtaking James.

Running, Running, Running

If there was one area where James excelled over Ricky, it was easily his running. James’ margin of victory over Ricky was 3:03, and his total running time alone was 3:55 faster. Had Ricky been able to run with James, he would’ve beaten him by almost a full minute.

We often look to the stations for areas that we can improve. There are 8 different movements we can train, in a variety of different workout styles and formats. They are far more sexy than running sixteen 500m loops in a circle. But at the end of the day, HYROX is a running event. If we learned anything from HYROX Sydney, it’s that running still rules the day. The biggest area for improvement, for most people, will be their ability to run under fatigue.

Ricky’s Stations Were Impressive… But Not THAT Impressive

Well, except for the wall balls. Ricky did all 100 wall balls unbroken in 3:24 🤯.

Ricky beat James in 4 stations, while James beat Ricky in 3. They actually tied on the row, both with a 3:53. Ricky’s margin of victory on the stations was 1:24. He made up time on the following movements:

• Sled Push: 32 seconds
• Sled Pull: 28 seconds
• Lunges: 10 seconds
• Wall Balls: 44 seconds

James’ 3 station wins were less impressive:

• SkiErg: 5 seconds
• Burpee Broad Jumps: 18 seconds
• Farmer’s Carry: 7 seconds

While Ricky easily outperformed James on the stations, it was nowhere near enough to make up for his slower running.

Burpee Broad Jumps

When we look at the running and stations combined, there’s one station that stands out from the rest. James’ biggest station win over Ricky was the burpee broad jumps, in which he beat Ricky by 18 seconds. But it was the run after the burpee broad jumps that really began to tell a story.

After the burpee broad jumps, James outran Ricky by 47 seconds, his largest margin of victory on any run. James clocked a 4:02, which was consistent with most of his other laps. In contrast, Ricky had his slowest run after this station. Either Ricky was feeling the cumulative effect after 35 minutes of work (which is a longer time domain than most elite-level CrossFit workouts), or the burpee broad jumps zapped Ricky’s running legs.

We also have to give James credit for not losing a step after 80 meters of burpee broad jumps.

Regardless of the outcome, it was fun to watch high-level athletes compete outside of their primary sport. We’d all be a little bit fitter if we CrossFitters tried HYROX, HYROXers tried CrossFit, and so on. After all, isn’t that what hybrid fitness is all about?

About The Author

You can read more from Dave over at The Fitness Experiment.