Moritz Furste, former Olympic athlete and the co-founder of HYROX, has released a statement on Instagram in relation to the incident with Joanna Wietrzyk at HYROX Beijing.
Wietrzyk, the winner of the event, experienced food poisoning prior to the event, and suffered from diarrhea during the race itself.
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The Statement from Moritz Furste
Following this incident, HYROX co-founder Moritz Furste released the following statement.
“I need to address all of you directly concerning the recent events in China.
I apologise to all that were directly or indirectly affected, as well as to everyone who felt like we did not handle the situation like we should have.
HYROX made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race. In the end, it is my job to foresee these potential incidents, and I did not.
Of course, we started improving event processes, plus making rulebook changes immediately. As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again.
We learn and try to get better everyday.
Mo.”
Since the statement, the rulebook has been updated with an addendum to the DNF section (scroll to page 44, section 12.3).
“If a racer’s blood, vomit, urine, or faeces poses a welfare or contamination risk to the racer or to other racers, a Race Director may withdraw the racer from the race on medical grounds, in line with HYROX’s medical and hygiene SOPs. Any such withdrawal is recorded on the leaderboard as Did Not Finish [DNF].”
