Greece staged its first HYROX race on 5 and 6 September, and a Greek athlete won it: Stella Alexandridou took HYROX WOMEN. Podiums, numbers and the French performances from an 85 nation field.
Greece had been waiting years for its first HYROX race. It arrived on 5 and 6 September at the Metropolitan Expo, in hall 603A next to Athens airport, and a Greek athlete delivered the story of the weekend: Stella Alexandridou won the HYROX WOMEN division in front of her friends and family in 1:02:32.
3,313 athletes over two days, 85 nationalities on the start list. For a first edition, the field was far more international than the average race of the 26/27 season. Here is what mattered.
Stella Alexandridou wins on home ground
The script was almost too neat. In HYROX WOMEN, Greece's Stella Alexandridou closed her Sunday in 1:02:32, beating Cyprus's Stephanie Soteriou by 2:40. Of the 324 women ranked in the Open division, she was the only one to go under 1:03.
The gap says something about the race: Athens had no obvious local favourite before the weekend, and the Greek scene announced itself in a single day. Behind her, the top five featured five different countries, including North Macedonia, Kuwait and Egypt.
It was not her first race, she had already run Malaga in DOUBLES MIXED earlier in the year, but it was her first win. She also left with a second result: sixth in DOUBLES MIXED alongside Dimitrios Koulouris in 57:32.
| Rank | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stella Alexandridou (GRE) | 01:02:32 |
| 2 | Stephanie Soteriou (CYP) | 01:05:12 |
| 3 | Sanja Kosturanova (MKD) | 01:06:48 |
Gary Pettigrew leaves with two wins
In the men's race, Scotland's Gary Pettigrew had the perfect weekend. On Saturday he took HYROX MEN in 58:50, the only athlete under the hour among 618 finishers. On Sunday he came back with Christopher Millar and won HYROX DOUBLES MEN in 55:11. Two starts, two titles.
Greece's Dimitrios Gkorezis pushed him all the way, finishing 52 seconds down, which gave the host nation a second athlete on the podium of its opening race.
| Rank | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Pettigrew (SCO) | 00:58:50 |
| 2 | Dimitrios Gkorezis (GRE) | 00:59:42 |
| 3 | Jonathan Reaney (GBR) | 00:59:50 |
The PRO divisions delivered the fast times
PRO is where the clock really moved, and where the race turned. Germany's Paul Weindl was leading HYROX PRO MEN and heading for the win when a back injury stopped him at the entrance to the Wall Balls. Scotland's Graham Halliday inherited the lead and took it in 55:12, 34 seconds clear of Liam Mccroary. France's Gregory Pereira completed the podium in 56:44, one second ahead of Portugal's Joao Almeida.
In the women's field there was no suspense. American Megan Jacoby, the 2024 world champion and the first woman ever to break the hour in a HYROX PRO race, won in 57:30. That is three races into the qualifying season and three wins. Germany's Stefanie Oswald finished 40 seconds back, in 58:10.
That 58:10 is the quickest solo time of Oswald's career. She broke her personal best on Saturday, then won on Sunday: paired with Seka Arning, she took HYROX PRO DOUBLES WOMEN in 53:55, the fastest women's time of the whole edition. Two races together for that pair, two wins. The outright fastest time of the weekend went to Cem Ter Burg and Maarten Enthoven, 49:29 in HYROX PRO DOUBLES MEN.
| Division | Winner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| HYROX PRO MEN | Graham Halliday (GBR) | 00:55:12 |
| HYROX PRO WOMEN | Megan Jacoby (USA) | 00:57:30 |
| HYROX PRO DOUBLES MEN | Cem Ter Burg and Maarten Enthoven | 00:49:29 |
| HYROX PRO DOUBLES WOMEN | Stefanie Oswald and Seka Arning | 00:53:55 |
France took over the PRO division
Athens was a loud weekend for French athletes. Six of them finished inside the top thirty of HYROX PRO MEN: Gregory Pereira (3rd, 56:44), Martin Lecorgne (8th, 57:50), Adrien Leroux (11th, 58:31), Mathis Guillou (15th, 59:36), Corentin Sinic (21st) and Ugo Menuet (27th).
Leroux left with a second result too: third in HYROX PRO DOUBLES MEN alongside Rayane Kara in 51:44. In DOUBLES MIXED, Léo René and Lilou Duffau took fourth in 56:26, ahead of Julie Orial and Nathan Giovannangeli, fifth in 57:16. Two French pairs inside the division's top five. In DOUBLES MEN, France's Ahmed Kachouti and Switzerland's Yan Tavares took third in 56:53.
The numbers behind the race
3,313 athletes across the two days: 1,240 racing solo, the rest spread over 941 DOUBLES teams and a handful of relays. The median time in HYROX MEN was 1:24:01, and 1:34:37 in HYROX WOMEN. Useful reference points if you are measuring your own race, and quick for a first edition.
The most telling number is the passport count: 85 countries represented. Athens in September, in a hall attached to the airport terminal, clearly worked as a destination race as much as a calendar fixture. Unlike Tenerife on the same weekend, where the heat dragged times out, the Greek results stayed in line with the athletes' own histories.
What comes next
The 26/27 season moves fast. Rome hosts the Italian stop from 23 to 27 September, with Oslo following from 25 to 27. The full calendar is in our season dates round-up, and points scored this season count towards the World Championships in Hong Kong in June 2027.
Every Athens ranking, division by division, plus station times for each athlete, is on our HYROX Athens results page.
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