© HYROX Chicago
Josh van Zeeland finished third overall and second in his age group, clocking a time of 57 minutes and 39 seconds, among more than 500 participating athletes at the HYROX World Championships in Chicago.
Luxembourg has a rising star in 27-year-old Josh van Zeeland. He shined at the HYROX World Championships in Chicago, outperforming expectations in just his third HYROX race – and only his second in the Pro division. The sport has over 600,000 participating athletes with van Zeeland now among some of the fittest people on the planet.
“It’s quite a surreal feeling – I’ve not been doing this sport for very long. To be coming second in the world in my age group and third overall… it almost feels as if I’ve cheated somehow, like I don’t really deserve to be where I am.”
Despite the imposter syndrome, van Zeeland has put the work in to get to the stage where he is today. 67km of running, seven hours of additional cardio, and five hours of strength training in the penultimate week to the event – he pushed his body to its limits. Documenting the journey on his instagram (@jvanzeelandfit), he balances a clean diet with frequent double training block days, while being a personal trainer. To maintain such a high training volume, he often trains at the crack of dawn – his routine demanding relentless discipline and sacrifice.
The man who spent the majority of his life living in Neudorf, but now resides in Perth, Australia, was in the first wave of his division, which tends to contain the faster athletes, therefore up against tough opposition. Seasoned HYROX athlete Sean Noble proved how crucial experience can be, overtaking van Zeeland at the final station after pacing himself smartly throughout the race. Van Zeeland noted that he "had nothing left in the tank" on the Wall Balls and Noble ultimately won the race.
Despite the taxing physical effort it was the pre-race registration that he highlighted as the toughest moment: "It's such a big event and there's so much hype around it. The venue was busy. It was all a bit much for me. You get sized up quite a lot in this sport, there's a lot of egos floating around. You do get looked up and down, especially if you're wearing a Team Luxembourg t-shirt. People don't really tend to think very much of you, unfortunately. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and it doesn't really matter what you look like or where you come from."
Furthermore, he also had a slight calf strain early on in the race after the sled push was more demanding than he expected, but he was able to push through despite the pain.
Now, he has his eyes firmly set on racing with the Elite 15, where 15 of the best HYROX athlete's compete in order to crown the world's fittest man. Due to his lack of experience and only two races in the Pro category, he needs to compete in more races to reduce his average race time, which currently stands at 58 minutes 40 seconds. He is required to race at a 'major' to qualify which he will do in Melbourne in December, squeezing in some more races around Asia beforehand. All of this travel comes at a cost; having already created ties with Puma and Dr. Hydrate, van Zeeland is on the look out for more sponsors.
If you're interested in participating in one of the fastest growing sports in the world, then van Zeeland recommends concentrating on the running aspect of the race. He suggests a half marathon plan: as "you're spending 50% of the race running, you need to be comfortable running under fatigue. Run in all different forms: run fast, run slow, run for long distances, run sprints, but you need to be a comfortable runner." Then he also says "do not buy into the egos and focus on yourself".
