Hyrox changes rules after athlete soiled herself in competition

BEIJING: The Hyrox athletics franchise has apologised for allowing an athlete to complete an event in Beijing despite soiling herself midway through, causing an outcry on social media.

Photos and videos posted online showed Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk with soiled legs and shoes, continuing to use the mats and equipment at the competition held Saturday in the Chinese capital.

She completed the event without the organising committee intervening, and went on to win the competition, according to the Hyrox website.

But users pointed out on social media that other participants had to touch the contaminated mats, handles and running tracks after she had used them, and that the episode raised concerns about hygiene.

Hyrox, launched in Germany in 2018 and now held worldwide, is an indoor fitness race with a mixture of treadmill running and strength exercises, such as lunges and rowing.

Its popularity has exploded in China in recent years.

"Why didn't they consider the health of the other competitors and the public?" said one user on Chinese social media network Weibo.

"A foreign athlete suffered from diarrhoea, soiled the course and won anyway," said another angry user. "It's pro-foreigner favouritism."

"I apologise to all that were directly or indirectly affected, as well as to everyone who felt like we did not handle the situation like we should have," said Hyrox co-founder Moritz Furste in a statement on Monday.

"Hyrox made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race," he added.

He accepted responsibility for failing to foresee the incident and said there were "new rules and procedures in place" to "prevent situations like this from happening again".

Hyrox China did not apologise but admitted in an earlier statement to "shortcomings" in the regulations which had prevented judges from intervening immediately during the competition.

As the row boiled over, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Monday blamed "regulatory flaws that not only harm the participants' health but also undermine the very foundation of fairness in any competition".