Sports Direct’s Oxford Street flagship celebrates Hyrox fitness event with Puma

Sports Direct’s flagship store on Oxford Street is celebrating the return of the Hyrox fitness event to London with a range of pre-event in-store activations from 2-3 May, in partnership with Puma.

Hyrox, founded in Germany in 2017, is the competitive indoor fitness event which combines running with functional exercises. It bills itself as "The World Series of Fitness Racing", designed for everybody – not just elite athletes.

It has brought its races to exhibition halls across 20 countries and the latest event is taking place at London Olympia from 4-6 May.

Sports Direct, recently announced as Hyrox’s title partner, is aiming to get participants "race ready" and is offering pre-registration in-store.

The brand is also offering people the opportunity to win high performance gear from the Puma Hyrox collection, providing a taste of what the competition has to offer through three workout stations - consisting of rowing machines, assault runners and skiergs.

Even those who don’t win the Puma Hyrox range can take away key performance statistics to enhance their last minute training routines.

Challengers can check into the competition in-store, where Hyrox team members are ensuring they are fully prepared for race day.

Meanwhile, live DJs are also performing in-store "to pump up attendees", and Puma Hyrox ambassadors, Faisal Abdalla and Gede Foster, are on-site providing last minute advice.

To complete the preparation, Frasers Group-owned Sports Direct and Puma are hosting a series of gym classes for fitness enthusiasts of all levels in the Flannels store (also owned by Frasers Group) at 161-167 Oxford Street today, as well as a run club with MyProtein on 3 May.

Frasers Group CEO, Michael Murray, said: "Hyrox shares Sports Direct’s ambition to make sports accessible to all as it is a race designed to accommodate both professional athletes and everyday fitness enthusiasts. I am a big believer in fitness and wellbeing, and nobody has captured the fitness space and created hype quite like Hyrox has.

"We’re excited to see how seasoned competitors and first timers perform in the race with the support of our in-store activities, and how many of our shoppers feel inspired to take their training to the next level."

The Hyrox competition hosts up to as many as 3,000 participants in an indoor arena, starting with a 1 km run, followed by one functional workout, repeated eight times.

The race is at various levels, from ‘Open’ (the standard level race) to ‘Pro’ level for solo racers, and there’s an opportunity to compete as doubles or as a team, with ‘Double’ or ‘Relay’ options, respectively. Global leaderboards and a cumulative World Championship race take place at the end of each season.