Travers takes a second place finish in Turin competition

AARON Travers is enjoying a successful build-up to the Hyrox World Championships in Chicago.

The 25-year-old has started 2025 brightly by finishing second in his age-group at Hyrox Turin as an individual before going on to dominate the double competition at Hyrox Magherafelt alongside Brockagh’s Tiernan O’Neill.

In Italy, the Carrickmore man finished second in one hour and two minutes and while pleased with his overall performance, he admits that the experience has given him better knowledge about how to prepare for his trip to America in June in terms of arriving early to overcome any tiredness from the journey.

“It was a tough enough course, but at the pro level it’s going to be tough regardless,” he observed. “It was probably the toughest one yet and because we did a lot of travelling, it resulted in my body being quite fatigued, but you learn from those things.

“In future I’ll go out a few days before competition, but I’ve no excuses because I came second in my age category so I was happy enough.

“Reflecting on the result, it definitely wasn’t my best race but it wasn’t far off it and I’m still learning and developing.”

A short time after returning from Turin, Aaron competed alongside O’Neill in Magherafelt at the Performance Lab Cookstown-organised doubles competition, which they completed in a sensational time of 51 minutes to win outright.

“It was savage! It was good and Tiernan is flying, so it was good to run with him,” Aaron beamed.

Before he jets off to Chicago for the World Championships, Aaron is planning on competing in a doubles competition in Brussells in April with Waterford’s Darragh Corcoron and he’s then going to compete to London in May.

After that, it’s all roads lead to America where he’s keen to improve upon his performance at the last edition in Nice where, despite being a complete rookie at the sport, he finished 15th in the under-24 section.

“I’ll make a big push for it this year. Last year I was too much of a novice to go against those boys, but hopefully now with a wee bit more experience behind me I’ll be able to put up a bit more of a fight,” he said.