Afan Humphries will be competing alongside thousands of others in Cardiff this weekend
This weekend, thousands of people will descend on the Principality Stadium to compete in one of sport’s trendiest competitions as Hyrox makes its Welsh debut. Some people will be competing in the functional fitness competition for the first time but for Afan Humphries, Wales’ most successful Hyrox athlete, the competition will be a familiar one.
A former Welsh cross-country champion, Afan, 37, has always been sporty. But it wasn’t until he tried his first Hyrox three and a half years ago that he realised he could compete with some of the world’s fittest athletes.
Hyrox – which is taking over the Principality Stadium from Friday, May 30, until Sunday, June 1 – is a fitness competition which consists of eight one kilometre runs, with eight functional workout stations in between. These stations include rowing, sled pushes, wall balls and burpees.
After finishing 12th overall on his debut, Afan is now the only Welsh athlete competing in Hyrox Elite 15, where he competes against the best Hyrox athletes in the world.
Now, having competed in 19 Hyrox competitions, he admits it’s “totally addictive”.
Afan lives in Bargoed, having grown up in Ystrad Mynach. The Welsh athlete has competed in Italy, Germany, Spain, the USA and the Netherlands but he says the opportunity to compete on home turf is the most exciting yet.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said, as he recalled finding out that the event was being held in Cardiff. “I’ve been hoping for it for a long time because there’s no better place to hold Hyrox than in the Principality Stadium.
“When you’ve been to Manchester, Birmingham or London and seen the atmosphere there, I just know Cardiff’s going to be something similar to that, so it’s going be great.”
Despite being one of the best in the world at Hyrox, Afan works full time laying and repairing broken water mains. In between the physical demands of his job, he fits in around 16 hours a week of training in his gym in Ystrad Mynach.
He talked me through his strict training schedule which ensures he’s able to compete with the best.
“There’s a lot of running in it and I’d like to do a lot more but because of my job I’m quite limited to the volume I can get in,” Afan explained.
“In the mornings, it would probably be an hour and a half in the gym. It’d be all Hyrox-specific training, a bit of sled pushing and interval running and maybe a bit strength work at the end if I’ve got time. This is all before work so I’m down there between 4am and 4.15am.
“We’ve got the key to the the gym. I’ll be doing these out-and-out runs around the industrial estate when it’s pitch black, before the street lights even come on. I’m just running up the middle of the road sometimes, all against the clock.
“In the evenings, it normally depends on how I feel so I’ll do anything between eight and 10 miles steady running, or sometimes further if I feel like pushing it.”
To date, Afan’s personal best is 56 minutes, 19 seconds, which he achieved in Maastricht this year. However, he must constantly keep improving to maintain his place as one of Hyrox’s best and to work towards his goal of being the best in the world.
Hyrox Elite 15 is described as “a high-stakes, global competition within the HYROX fitness racing series, where the top 15 male and female athletes compete for the title of HYROX World Champion”.
Afan explained: “They combine two of your fastest races and they get an average time of the two. Obviously there’s Hyrox nearly every weekend of the year now so if someone beats my time, they’ll jump ahead of me and I’ll be pushed out of it.
“You think you’ve done well and you’re back in and next week someone else has broken your time and you’ve been pushed back out!”
The 37-year-old also shared his tips for people competing for the first time.
“Don’t go off too hard because it can ruin your whole race, like it did for my first one,” he said. “Try to soak up the atmosphere and think this is what you’ve trained hard for, so just go out there and enjoy.”
Afan will compete in the men’s pro competition on Friday night and the men’s doubles on Saturday night.
