TWO Tyrone men are targeting success in Chicago this week when they compete in the Hyrox World Championships.
Carrickmore’s Aaron Travers and Brockagh’s Tiarnan O’Neill travelled to America on Saturday and they are confident of achieving their aims come the day of their various events.
Twenty-three year-old trainee teacher, O’Neill, endured a nail-biting qualification path in order to book his place in Chicago, narrowly missing out in Dublin, Barcelona and Glasgow before sealing his spot in Berlin.
And now he’s secured his entry to the World Championships, he’s keen to claim a top 10 finish.
“The aim is definitely to be top 10 in the world, I’ll give it my all. The goal last year was to qualify for the World’s and I’ve done that,” he beamed.
“I was unlucky initially because I got a third in Dublin and a fourth in Barcelona and that didn’t qualify me.
“So I went to Berlin and I was doing three races – solo on the Saturday, doubles on the Sunday and relay on the Sunday evening – and the goal was three podiums and to qualify. I wanted a challenge!”
In order to qualify, Tiarnan decided to make life as difficult as possible for himself by enterting three events in Berlin and fortunately he achieved his ultimate goal of earning a place in the solo Hyrox in his age-group with a stellar performance in Germany.
“I got 58.07 and I was buzzing but I was ripping that I didn’t break 58 [minutes]! That’s the mentality, but that left me second and I knew top two was guaranteed [for Chicago], so I knew I had qualified and I had the podium,” he explained.
“Then, in the doubles, the goal was 52 minutes, but we came in on 53 and we were third, a second off second place and then in the relay, the world record was broken twice so we fell down the pack a bit, but it was a savage weekend!
“And while I knew I had qualified, I still had to wait to get the email confirmation, which I got on the Wednesday to confirm my place and it was pure relief. It was euphoric because I had such high expectations for myself.
“That was the goal and I was sort of disappointed with a couple of the other races, I felt I had more to give, and the whole week leading up to Berlin, everything was perfect and it goes to show you can have an off day but when you put everything into practice, and you put the targets there, the result was sort of inevitable.
“It was great!”
Twenty-five year-old Travers meanwhile is on the fringes of breaking into the top 15 Hyrox competitors in the world, the Elite 15, and he’s hoping to seal medal success in both his age-group solo competition and the doubles alongside Darragh Corcoran.
“I’m looking forward to Chicago, it will be a great experience but I’m also looking forward to next season because I feel it’s going to be my time to break into the Elite 15,” he said.
“Hopefully I can keep the momentum going but first I want to podium [in Chicago].”
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