World Champion Dylan Scott made his competitive season debut in Boston this weekend, and erased any thoughts of a champion’s hangover with a 54:42 and the win, by 24 seconds ahead of his doubles partner Stephen Pelkofer.
OF TRIANGLE BOYS AND DRAGONS
I asked Scott about the pressure of racing this season with a target on his back and the extra pressure of his new status. “I felt it for sure,” he said. “I was laying in bed the night before the race and I had a talk with myself about the pressure and…said hey there is no hiding from this. It’s what you asked for and it’s what you got. So you should learn to love it.
It was like the parable of this man who really loved dragons. He had paintings of dragons and had books about dragons and loved to talk about dragons. It was so well known how much this man loved dragons that a dragon heard of it and having been hidden away from people because they all feared him, the dragon came down to the man thinking finally a person who understands and accepts me. The man upon seeing the dragon turns ghost white and screams and runs away.
So I had to ask myself: Do I really love dragons? And in fact I do.”
The Doubles pairing of Scott and Pelkofer, who live about 15 minutes apart, is nicknamed the ‘Triangle Boys.’ Scott has for a while been the better-known of the two while Pelkofer’s singles times were excellent without threatening the Elite15. Not any more. Friday morning in Boston, Pelkofer notched his fourth consecutive second place.
It was a cause of frustration to him as he is yet to notch an overall win, three years after his debut in the sport. But it is only a matter of time until that happens, as his 55:06 on a far-from-swift Boston course saw him finish only 24 seconds behind his Doubles partner. Dylan Scott said of Pelkofer that he “is everything I thought he could be and would be and will be in this sport. I’m stoked that he is pressing me to the line in races these days. It will only make us both better.”
On Saturday, Pelkofer & Scott cruised to a comfortable 51:12 win in the Doubles, as they look ahead to the season’s first Elite race in Hamburg. It goes without saying that Pelkofer & Scott are on a short list of pairings who go into that not just hoping but expecting to win. Learn & Dubé, Greer & Williamson, and Botterill & Dearden are among the other favourites and the race is looking tastier by the week. It may take a new World Record to come out on top.
KNEE SURGERY TAG-TEAMING DOWN UNDER
Jon Wynn undergoes osteotomy surgery on his knee on 9th November, which will require months of rehab. He has lived with one leg being 3cm longer than the other, and in recent years has run only with a lot of pain (thanks to cartilage degradation) which he managed until it became a threat to his long-term mobility. He will emerge from surgery with both legs the same length and big plans for the next 10-15 years including, he says, an Ultra Marathon, a sub-55 minute Hyrox and…a fight in a ring. (You can hear more about Jon’s situation on last week’s episode of Hybrid Fitness Report podcast when he was a guest on our show.)
Meanwhile Jon’s doubles partner Beau Wills just completed his first race back from the knee surgery he underwent on 31st March. He did 58:17 in Geneva, which is over three minutes off his best but constitutes a victory and a stepping-stone as he begins the road back to elite racing, where he clearly belongs.
WHEN IS A WIN MORE THAN A WIN?
A win is a win. But when you beat two athletes who stand between you and the Elite15 it’s a bit more than just a win. More like the proverbial footballing ‘six-pointer’ when two (or in this case three) rivals face off in a matchup of potentially outsized consequences. Stefanie Oswald dominated the Singles race in Geneva, winning by over two minutes ahead of both local favourite Melanie Maurer and Elli Stenfors.
Given how far ahead she was, I asked Oswald what it was like trying to stay locked into her race plan. She said, “it’s a great feeling when you realise you’ve built up a solid lead and don’t necessarily need to push yourself to the absolute limit anymore. But…You still have to stay focused, stay sharp and avoid unnecessary mistakes. Especially because the competition in Geneva was actually really strong…”
Oswald jumps into the top 20 for singles, and is already Elite15 in doubles with her partner Seka Arning. On her plans for the rest of the season she said, “My main goal is to keep progressing, stay injury-free and, most importantly, never lose the joy and passion I have for this sport. But of course, I do have one big goal in mind: qualifying for the Elite15!”
Oswald continues her pursuit of elite status while combining her full-time job as an Engineer in Technical Change Management – a job she loves and which she feels provides her with ‘balance.’ That said, “managing recovery, training and everyday life is something I’m constantly working on,” she said.
“DANG I MIGHT ACTUALLY PULL THIS OFF…LET’S GO!”
Over in Boston, Willow Collins told me that she “went into this race truly believing I could win but knew I had to respect the competitors…So coming off the sled in first I was a bit out of my comfort zone. I have never been in that position and didn’t know the best way to pace myself. I am very deficient in the burpee broad jumps and expected everyone to catch up there but I did well today! So once I got past that I thought, ‘dang I might actually pull this off…let’s go!”
With Elite15 athlete Lauren Griffith behind her, Collins knew she needed a decent lead going into lunges and wall balls. When she started to struggle during wall balls she thought Lauren had caught her, and was just trying to hold on and “squeak out the win,” although the final gap was over a minute.
24 hours later, Collins teamed up with Molly Chambers and they won the Pro Doubles by two clear minutes over Sullivan & Carroll.
Willow plans to continue focusing mainly on the singles, although if she keeps putting together weekends like that, she will quickly find herself threatening the Elite15 in Doubles too.
BRITS PREVAIL ON LUMPY NEUTRAL TERRITORY
British trio Jake Dearden, Liam Mccroary and Marc Dean swept the podium in Geneva on Friday. It wasn’t a quick race, due at least in part to some very tough sled lanes. Dean told me they were “hard work, but not as bad as everyone was making out.” The biggest issue may have been that there was a mini ramp created by “something underneath the carpet” at the ends of the 12.5m stretches – something that he said “we all felt.”
Dean noted that in these situations, some people “lose composure, they get frustrated and then it becomes too much of a battle and the whole station goes out of the window.”
Which makes Dearden’s winning 55:03 all the more impressive.
Meanwhile top 50 athlete and Challenger15 hopeful Oli Fricker noted on his YouTube channel the “lump” by the “far line” on his lane that “pretty much ruined my race,” including one length where it took him 20 seconds to get the sled over the far line once he got there. He pulled out of the race after the burpees, pointing out that the reason to be there was points. There was no panic in his case, just the cold knowledge that after losing two minutes on the sled push he had no chance of good points, and preferred to save himself for next week in Budapest rather than put himself in a hole in this race.
CLEVER PLOJ IN GDANSK
Alen Ploj was holding off Jude Reynolds for a solid second place behind leader Tomas Tvrdik at the sandbag lunges, but then he found another gear. PB’s on the last two stations including a blistering 3:18 finish on the wall balls – his first time going unbroken – saw Ploj claim victory, eight seconds ahead of a frustrated but phlegmatic Tvrdik, who had dominated most of the race. This after the whole field suffered varying degrees of sled-push nightmare, with some athletes having lanes where the turf was very noticeably rouching up, no matter how good and low their technique.
Ploj said, “The plan was actually to start a bit more aggressively than in my previous two races, where I felt I had been too conservative early on. I knew Tvrdik would maintain a strong pace from start to finish, so my goal was to stay as close to him as possible throughout the race and not let the gap get too big…Going into the wall balls, I knew he was struggling a little because he…dropped the ball twice. Seeing that gave me extra motivation and belief that I could still win. I decided to go all in…Also Jude is chasing me all race and I knew that his wall balls are very good, so I needed to speed up.”
For the rest of the season, Ploj told me that his “main goal is simply to enjoy the training process as much as possible, keep improving and become a better athlete,” knowing that the results will then take care of themselves.
THE SLEDS AGAIN
Holly Archer clocked 1:08:12 for an Age Group first and 10th overall in the Pro Singles in Gdansk. I wondered how that compared to her previous times, only to find out that was her Pro Singles debut. Her previous singles was in the Open division 10 months ago in London.
She enjoyed the cool conditions in Gdansk but struggled in the race after the sled push, telling me that her lane was “rippling, so I used my wrist to shove over the line and struggled with my left hand after that. Running and lunges were fine but anything with my left hand was awful… feel a bit embarrassed but I know I can show everyone it was a bad day when I do my next one.” Looking at her splits, the inability to grip and catch cost her so much time on the wall balls and farmers carry, she’d have gone comfortably sub-60 without the injury. Hopefully she heals up well in time for Hamburg.
ICYMI
Hyrox founders Moritz Fürste and Christian Toetzke have invested in fitness event Xenom, which is a standardized format race calling itself ‘The Decathlon of Fitness,’ largely targeting the CrossFit community. Fürste and Toetzke now sit on the board of directors of Xenom, demonstrating their interest in and commitment to competitive fitness, and not just Hyrox.
After four test events this year, Xenom are looking to stage 10 in 2027. Events are two days long, cost $500 for a singles and $900 for a doubles, and take place in a stadium. So on the one hand costs are very high. But it’s comparable if you’re the type of Hyroxer who does doubles and singles and maybe a relay on top. The Dallas launch event was superbly presented by all accounts, but with only 400 attendees, of whom many were comped their tickets. But London – in the fitness-racing-mad UK – had 2,000.
It will be interesting to see how quickly they approach commercial viability. But also, how this might affect the Hyrox founders’ time and attention on their original product, with the massive demands of launching a new venture.
COMING UP
Wednesday’s episode of Hybrid Fitness Report sees us interview New York Times journalist and author Calum Marsh. He has spent nearly 20 years covering functional fitness and his book, ‘The Glass Box: The Shocking True Story of How CrossFit Broke the Rules, Made Millions, and Changed Fitness Forever,’ is published next month. He’s also interviewed Hyrox founders Mo Fuerste and Christian Toetzke several times, so we had a fascinating conversation comparing and contrasting CrossFit and Hyrox.
Next week the metaphorical Hyrox ship docks in Valencia (Spain), Budapest (Hungary) and São Paulo (Brazil). And the week after that, the literal Hyrox Cruise ship docks at Marseille, Barcelona & Mallorca.
RESULTS
GENEVA
MEN’S PRO SINGLES
- Jake Dearden (55:03)
- Liam Mccroary (55:45)
- Marc Dean (56:34)
MEN’S PRO DOUBLES
- Thomas Dubost & Tommy Valentin (51:06)
- Dylan Caruso & Eugenio Bianchi (51:19)
- Danny Rae & Jamie Hennessy (51:20)
WOMEN’S PRO SINGLES
- Stefanie Oswald (59:03)
- Melanie Maurer (1:01:27)
- Elli Stenfors (1:01:47)
WOMEN’S PRO DOUBLES
- Céline von Potobsky & Melanie Maurier (58:00)
- Zoé Tsikou & Kristina Litvinova (1:01:56)
- Megan Powell & Charlotte Taylor-Green (1:02:03)
MIXED DOUBLES
- Salomé De Barthez & Thomas Fry (55:36)
BOSTON
MEN’S PRO SINGLES
- Dylan Scott (54:42)
- Stephen Pelkofer (55:06)
- Macklin Kortebein (56:25)
MEN’S PRO DOUBLES
- Stephen Pelkofer & Dylan Scott (51:12)
- Joseph Rucco & AJ Golik (53:32)
- Spencer Weller & Brayden Lind (53:41)
WOMEN’S PRO SINGLES
- Willow Collins (1:00:07)
- Lauren Griffith (1:01:23)
- Carolyn Watkins (1:02:39)
WOMEN’S PRO DOUBLES
- Willow Collins & Molly Chambers (56:55)
- Kelly Sullivan & Cassandra Carroll (58:58)
- Megan Mcnabb & Ali Summers (1:00:29)
MIXED DOUBLES
- Gabe Piepergerdes & Brittany Weiss
GDANSK
MEN’S SINGLES
- Alen Ploj (57:02)
- Tomas Tvrdik (57:08)
- Jude Reynolds (57:33)
MEN’S DOUBLES
- Kieron White & Conor Maguire (51:21)
- Maciej Węgorzewski & Kristian Patrik Poremba (51:47)
- Daniel Røvitk & André Sødlund (53:23)
WOMEN’S SINGLES
- Tanja Stroschneider (1:00:50)
- Caitlin Tweed (1:01:04)
- Lea Sophie Pommerening (1:01:53)
WOMEN’S DOUBLES
- Sophia Parvizi Wayne & Chloe Cook (54:58)
- Malene Pedersen & Frida Reiersølmoen (56:53)
- Jo Smith & Lucie Bourne (1:00:29)
MIXED DOUBLES
- Joshua Henry & Alexandra Hill (54:53)
