Men’s Pro Race
Both James Kelly & Ricky Garard, two of the favorites to podium, got out to a fast start. They completed the SkiErg in 3:28 and 3:33, respectively. James outpaced Ricky on the run, and entered the sled push with a lead… which Ricky quickly made disappear. Garard was first out of the sled push, putting up the 5th fastest time in that workout, while James was 26th. Ricky made up 32 seconds on James in this station and regained the lead.
With another impressive run, James was first back into the Rox Zone for the sled pull. Once again, Ricky made up time and they left the sled pull at the same time, but James took off on the run and left Ricky behind. That was the last Ricky would see of James, as he literally ran away with it. No one else could match James’ pace on the run.
James put up an impressive 30:27 total run time, a full minute faster than the next fastest time put up by Chris Woolley, and almost 4 minutes faster than Ricky. In the end, James’ running made all the difference.
The race for second was now between Garard and Woolley.
Kelly arrived to the row first, followed by Woolley. Once Woolley strapped in, Kelly looks to him and says, “Where’s CrossFit?,” referring to Ricky & James Newbury, two seasoned CrossFit athletes who everyone had their eyes on. Woolley laughed, then looked at the livestream camera, and had something of his own to say.
“Hey Hunter. I’m coming for that Murph record. I don’t have it yet.”
Chris recently tried to take down the Murph world record and fell 29 seconds short with a time of 33:10.
Woolley had a pretty safe lead over Ricky for most of the second half of the race… until the final station—100 wall balls. For those that know CrossFit, you know wall balls are a staple movement. At the highest level, it’s not uncommon to see 30# wall balls in the programming. We’d expect this to be a station that Ricky would dominate.
Ricky did not disappoint, going unbroken on all 100 wall balls, and overtaking Chris to finish in 2nd.
We don’t know exactly when, but at some point before the wall balls, Ricky ditched his TYR shoes and finished the 100 wall balls in his socks, a la Alex Gazan at the 2023 CrossFit Games during the Alpaca Redux event.
Something happened with Chris’ wall balls. We’re not sure if he was just completed gassed by the time he got there… he was getting no reps and wasting energy… but whatever the reason, he could only manage 4-5 reps before taking a break. This opened the door for Ricky, who seized on the opportunity.
Women’s Pro Race
On the women’s side, Olivia Leonard shot out the gate fast, and never let up. She led the entire race, finishing in 1:10:39, winning by over 5 minutes. It was an incredibly impressive performance by the 28 year old.
Liv ran the 8k in 35:05 (4:23/km or 7:03/mi pace) and finished near the top in all the stations. The row was the only station where she had the fastest time. Her performance was reminiscent of Justin Medeiros in the 2022 CrossFit Games, where he didn’t win a single workout, but still stood atop the podium. Liv’s placement in the stations were:
- Ski: 2nd
- Sled push: 4th
- Sled pull: 2nd (to Van Zyl)
- Burpee broad jumps: 5th
- Row: 1st
- Farmer’s carry: 5th
- Lunges: 2nd (to Van Zyl)
- Wall balls: 6th
- Total run time: 2nd (to Caroline Langley)
Katelin Van Zyl, a multiple-times CrossFit Games athlete (team), finished in 2nd with a time of 1:15:51. Katelin had a fantastic first HYROX, putting up the fastest times for the ski, sled pull, and sandbag lunges. Her station work was on point, but she just couldn’t keep up with Liv on the run. Katelin was over 5 minutes slower on total run time.
Kim Mercer from the U.S. rounded out the podium in third with a time of 1:18:09. She was pretty consistent throughout the race, only struggling a bit with the ski erg and sandbag lunges, finishing 14th and 10th, respectively.
It’s also worth noting that Caroline Langley, who finished 12th overall, received a 5:00 penalty. Based on her timing splits, it looks like she might’ve done the workouts in the wrong order, or had some trouble navigating the Rox Zone. Even though we’re not sure exactly she did to get the penalty, she would’ve finished in 7th place without it. And she ran a 30:23, which is a 3:48/km (6:07/mi) pace, while also finishing 1st in the burpee broad jumps and 2nd in the wall balls. We’ll be keeping our eye on her in future HYROX races.
