Jacqui and Maddy Clarke and eight other BFT Echuca members travelled to Sydney Olympic Park from Friday, July 4 to Sunday, July 6 for the event which combines running and function workout stations.
Athletes run 1km, then do a functional workout station, repeating that eight times to make up the event.
The functional workouts the athletes are required to complete are skierg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmer's carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls.
The sisters weren’t the only ones participating in the event, with multiple entrants from BFT Echuca taking part in the men’s doubles, solo open women, mixed doubles and pro solo men.
The Clarkes competed in the pro doubles category, where they could share the functional workout load and have to remain within five seconds of each other in each of the runs.
Maddy was the busier sister at the event, as she also competed in the solo open women category, coming first in her age group and second overall.
The sisters have completed three Hyrox events together, including the Melbourne event in December 2024, Brisbane 2025 and Sydney, with the pair going from strength to strength.
Despite initially pulling out of the Sydney event, the sisters decided to go along with it and, to their surprise and joy, hit a personal best time of 59:36 and took out the win against professional athletes.
“We ended up getting that sub-60 time, which was a big goal of ours, so that was amazing,” Jacqui said.
“We ended up winning the open one in Melbourne and then we decided to enter the pro category in Brisbane and came second, so we decided to do the same in Sydney and we won, so that was great.
“It was a cool feeling because we didn’t expect it, there are no plans at this stage to do another Hyrox straight away, we both want a bit of downtime.
“When you are going up against athletes that have made it their career, it’s great to be able to go out there and get a win like that.”
Following their success in Sydney, the sisters qualified for the 2026 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, which brings together the best of the best Hyrox athletes to crown an age-group world champion.
After some deliberation, the pair decided to decline the invitation due to working full-time and Jacqui having a young family.
“Worlds for next year is in Stockholm, Sweden and we qualified for that, but you only have 48 hours to accept the invitation, obviously we both have busy schedules and couldn’t commit as it is a year away, so we passed on it,” Jacqui said.
“It is wonderful that we qualified for worlds and we qualified off the three races we’ve done, we had the opportunity to go to this year’s worlds as well in Chicago, but we passed on that one too.”
Jacqui reflected on her Hyrox experiences with her sister and how they have succeeded in the sport and highlighted the strong community spirit that comes from being involved in it.
“When you’re in a doubles partnership you have to have good communication and the same mindset because we are sisters, we don’t have to communicate for a lot of it, we just know what the other is thinking,” she said.
“My strengths are her weaknesses and vice versa, so we work really well together and we both know when to push each other, dig deep and get it done.
“Doubles partnerships are good because you aren’t just pushing for yourself, you’re doing it for someone else, so it gets the most out of you and is a good team experience.
“It was great to have such good participation from people at BFT Echuca, there was such a positive and community feel there.”
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