On home soil, Aussie HYROX legend James Kelly grasped victory with a time of 55:25.53. He grew up in Brisbane, and now lives an hour north of the city on the Sunshine coast, so this was an especially important win for him.
However, it was Brisbane local and professional nutritionist, Dexter Buchanan, that set the pace during most of the event. He moved out in front during the sled pushes and ran a bold and brave race. Collapsing over the finishing line in second place with a time of 57:12.08. This was enough to stamp his qualifying ticket to Stockholm.
In the post race interview, Buchanan commented on how it had been “a true max effort” and that he was elated, describing it as “the most special feeling ever”. Despite working full time, and living life as a Dad with his 10 month old son, he still managed this incredible feat.
Final Leaderboard
| Pos | Name | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Kelly | 55:25.53 | – |
| 2 | Dexter Buchanan | 57:12.08 | +01:47 |
| 3 | Jonathon Wynn | 57:33.69 | +02:08 |
| 4 | Greg Lewis | 57:51.12 | +02:26 |
| 5 | Matt Slee | 58:05.07 | +02:40 |
| 6 | Kane Baigent | 59:06.59 | +03:41 |
| 7 | Bay Tucek | 59:34.82 | +04:09 |
| 8 | Luke Brotherton | 60:09.54 | +04:44 |
| 9 | Corey Dietrich | 60:28.54 | +05:03 |
| 10 | Billy Schilling | 61:02.48 | +05:37 |
| 11 | Lee Tuck | 62:00.87 | +06:35 |
| 12 | Sam Shepherd | 63:17.20 | +07:52 |
| 13 | Abbas Nazari | 63:26.51 | +08:01 |
| 14 | Anthony Di Paolo | 64:40.18 | +09:15 |
In an odd twist of events, Luke Penny was disqualified. He didn’t finish the metres on his ski erg.
The rest of the field battled hard with Wynn (who will start training with James Newbury as his coach), Slee (elite triathlon background) and Lewis (former CrossFit Sanctionals level athlete) all jostling back and forth throughout the race.
Buchanan got a yellow card on burpee broad jumps. Wynn also received a yellow card. Shepherd was stung by a further two yellow cards on the burpees. Slee and Kelly were neck and neck as they arrived at the rowers. But a 3:47 row for Slee saw him match Kelly’s pace.
James Kelly made his move on the sandbag lunges, and narrowed the gap between himself and the leader. Buchanan looked fatigued on the sandbag lunges but didn’t slow down. Kelly passed Buchanan and looked strong and confident on his next run. Only then did he start to smile.
Buchanan had to break up the final 10 rep of the wall balls into 3s, then rested at 99 reps, before completing his final rep and collapsing over the finish line. The sheer brutality of the race was etched into all the faces of the athletes as they hung on through the wall balls.
James Kelly commented on the atmosphere and competition during the race, “I’m amazing at the fight from the other boys tonight”.
JK nails the home win, Buchanan must start planning his trip to Stockholm. Check out what happened over on the women’s side
