The first HYROX race in the Canary Islands produced times well below the usual references: Jake Dearden won 2:22 off his best. Podiums, measured gaps and French results from Santa Cruz.
Jake Dearden won in 57:20. That is 2:22 slower than his best. Xavier Dufour took fifth place almost six minutes off his personal best. Melanie Maurer won the women's race 3:48 away from hers. In Tenerife, from 4 to 6 September, almost nobody ran fast.
For the first HYROX race ever staged in the Canary Islands, the Recinto Ferial in Santa Cruz welcomed 6,547 athletes from more than 60 countries. Here are the podiums, and above all what the clock is telling us.
Jake Dearden wins well below his standard
Britain's Jake Dearden took HYROX PRO MEN, but his station times describe a race of attrition. The Sled Push cost him 3:11 and the Sled Pull 3:38, two segments he usually clears far quicker. He rescued the race where he is strongest: 3:46 total in the Roxzone, the transition area, and 2:16 on the Burpee Broad Jumps.
Czech athlete Tomas Tvrdik came up 31 seconds short, with Slovenia's Alen Ploj completing the podium. France's Xavier Dufour, fifth in 1:00:17, is himself one of the world's best over the format.
| Rank | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Dearden (ENG) | 00:57:20 |
| 2 | Tomas Tvrdik (CZE) | 00:57:51 |
| 3 | Alen Ploj (SLO) | 00:58:11 |
The table that sums up the weekend
Measure each favourite against their own personal best and the picture is clear. All the PRO divisions raced on the Saturday, the hottest of the three days: the Santa Cruz weather station recorded 33.6 °C, and it was still 33 °C at 5pm. HYROX PRO MEN started at 6.20pm.
| Athlete | Time in Tenerife | Gap to personal best |
|---|---|---|
| Jake Dearden | 00:57:20 | plus 2:22 |
| Melanie Maurer | 01:04:35 | plus 3:48 |
| Xavier Dufour | 01:00:17 | plus 5:51 |
| Manuela Garcia Caparros | 01:07:07 | plus 6:05 |
Some competitors questioned the racing conditions on social media, pointing to heat and humidity inside the hall and above all to the state of the carpet, which they said made the Sled Push and Sled Pull unusually punishing. No indoor temperature reading has been published, and the organisers have not confirmed those criticisms. They do line up with what the clock shows, though: the two sled stations are exactly where Jake Dearden lost the most time.
Melanie Maurer heads a strong PRO WOMEN podium
Switzerland's Melanie Maurer, ranked nineteenth in the world, won in 1:04:35, almost two minutes clear of Britain's Gabriella Moriarty. Spain's Manuela Garcia Caparros, another regular on Elite start lists, took third on home soil. France's Sallyann Morfouesse missed the podium by six seconds.
| Rank | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melanie Maurer (SUI) | 01:04:35 |
| 2 | Gabriella Moriarty (ENG) | 01:06:29 |
| 3 | Manuela Garcia Caparros (ESP) | 01:07:07 |
Jon Iriondo raced three times in three days
The story of the weekend is Spanish. Jon Iriondo won Friday's solo race in 59:18, the only athlete under the hour all weekend. On Saturday he went again in PRO DOUBLES with Sergio Turull and took fourth. On Sunday he won HYROX DOUBLES MEN with Alex Escudero in 53:52.
France's Halim Ennadifi, now in his forties, won Saturday's solo race in 1:00:39, which places him second across the three combined days. In the women's field, Paula Paredes posted the fastest time of the edition in 1:11:21, in her very first HYROX race.
| Division | Winner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| HYROX MEN | Jon Iriondo (ESP) | 00:59:18 |
| HYROX WOMEN | Paula Paredes (ESP) | 01:11:21 |
| HYROX DOUBLES MEN | Alex Escudero and Jon Iriondo | 00:53:52 |
| HYROX PRO DOUBLES MEN | Jake Williamson and Luke Greer | 00:51:00 |
| HYROX PRO DOUBLES WOMEN | Poppy and Elli Robinson | 01:00:43 |
The Robinson sisters doubled up as well: victory in PRO DOUBLES WOMEN, then second place in DOUBLES MIXED for Elli, alongside Jamie Pollock.
A sixth Spanish city for HYROX
Spain was already one of the best served countries on the circuit, with Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, Barcelona and Malaga. Santa Cruz de Tenerife becomes the sixth Spanish city to host a race, and the first outside the mainland. The depth of the home field showed: four Spaniards finished inside the HYROX PRO MEN top ten, and both Open divisions were won by Spanish athletes.
The race was held at the Recinto Ferial, the largest covered space in the Canary Islands at 40,000 square metres on the seafront, backed by the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Canary Islands government. One useful clarification: as everywhere on the circuit, the racing happens indoors, even when the building looks out over the Atlantic.
The numbers behind the race
6,547 athletes ranked across three days, well short of the 10,000 local press had trailed before the race. The median time in HYROX MEN was 1:27:17, and 1:42:05 in HYROX WOMEN.
The DOUBLES divisions dominated the programme, with close to 2,500 teams entered against 1,674 solo athletes. That is the expected shape for a first edition on an island: people come in pairs, often on holiday. Nine athletes out of ten travelled in from outside Tenerife, and six out of ten from abroad.
What comes next
Europe moves on to Maastricht from 17 to 20 September, then Rome and Oslo at the end of the month. 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 Tenerife ranking and the station times for each athlete are on our HYROX Tenerife results page. We previewed this Canary Islands debut in our race preview.
Your Tenerife patch deserves better than a drawer
Did you race at the Recinto Ferial this weekend? Given everyone's times, the finisher patch you brought home was well earned. ROXWALL makes hexagonal frames in France to display it, personalised with your colours, your time and your name. Build yours on the configurator.
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