Belmont, Ont. woman headed to Sweden for Hyrox World Championships

Lindsay Bessegato is headed to Sweden to compete in the Hyrox World Championships. Brent Lale reports.

Lindsay Bessegato likes to push herself to her mental and physical boundaries.

“Ninety-nine per cent of my running and training is solo, so it takes definitely a mental capacity to be able to do that alone and have the strength to do it alone and push yourself,” said Bessegato, a Team Canada Hyrox athlete.

The Belmont, Ont. native is headed to Sweden to compete in the Hyrox World Championships.

For those unfamiliar with the relatively new sport, it’s a grueling, physical competition.

“Hyrox is eight kilometers of running and eight functional stations in between,” said Bessegato.

After each kilometer of running, the athletes head to the interior of the track and do the strength portion. It includes ski and row erg, sled push and pull, burpee jumps, farmer’s carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls.

“I’m ranked one of the top females now because Canada is so slow to get into this sport,” said Bessegato of Hyrox, which launched in 2017.

“I still have a long way to go. Those Europeans and Americans are just insane. Like they’re hitting one-hour times.”

The 25-year-old former hockey player and CrossFit competitor will be hoping for a personal record of 1:03:00 when she competes in the solo pro on Friday.

She will follow that up with a mixed doubles race Saturday, and Sunday will join her teammates in the mixed relay.

Only taking up the sport two years ago, she’s been dedicating herself full-time to being the best.

“I’ve been going two sessions a day,” she said from her home gym.

“A lot of running and running like 60 to 70km a week, which still means I need to get on my strength training for the stations of Hyrox.”

The training requires a strict plan to make sure the skill is there, but also recovery is key.

“I had to build up that running capacity and at first my calves and quads weren’t liking it,” she said.

“Now I’m feeling good and my coach is really good at making sure that my recovery is there if I’m feeling off or having a slower day. I take my recovery pretty seriously and a lot of fueling nutrition, making sure I’m hydrated enough, especially with weather like this. Sunday is my rest day where I’ll go for like a walk and just get out of my gym with an easy bike ride to get ready for the week ahead.”

With its rising popularity and a uniform format, there is a high probability Hyrox could become an Olympic sport.

“I can definitely see it because it’s the same course all the time,” she added.

“They have a point system now, so it doesn’t matter what your time is, it’s based on how you compete and what you place during that race itself and the venue. So that makes things a little bit better. You’re not comparing a time from a slow course to a fast course. It’s just based on points”.

One look at her and you can see the power and strength. She admits it’s the running portion of the competitions where she needs to improve.

“Especially coming from a CrossFit background, a lot of runners are finding the sport,” said Bessegato.

“I’m really excited for my [mixed doubles] race with Ryan (Douglas) this weekend because we’re in 16 to 24 age group. I would definitely think we can represent Canada on the podium.”