Upgrade bringing DEKA fitness racing to Guernsey next year

The island’s first DEKA Strong event is set for 21 March at the Aztech Soccer arena and has already pulled in many fitness enthusiasts, selling out almost all of its 72 available places within a week of its launch.

Created by Tough Mudder company Spartan, DEKA bills itself as the ‘decathlon of hybrid racing’ and resembles a shorter version of the ever-popular Hyrox, but the Strong variant dispenses with the running entirely and instead consists simply of 10 functional fitness zones in succession.

Guernsey’s own DEKA Strong, which will be organised by Upgrade Fitness, will have official status and allow competitors to record times that can be compared to others around the world.

‘It’s quite cool for local people to be able to do an official event and to give them the chance to see where they rank in the world, basically,’ Upgrade Fitness owner Tim Ravenscroft said.

‘It’s a bit of fun and adds a bit of competition.’

Upgrade’s head Hyrox coach Kate Collenette recently placed second elite woman at the UK’s first DEKA Fit arena event in Derby. Fit has all the exercises of Strong but adds 10 total 500m runs between stations.

Collenette has highlighted how World Championships age-group qualifying spots could be up for grabs at Guernsey’s event.

‘Even though you’re racing against the people there, you’re racing against everyone else who’s done one this year.

‘We might end up with people who’ve done good enough times to go to the World Championships next year – we shall see.’

DEKA Strong is a short and sharp affair, with the men’s world record being just 10min. 33sec. The best for a full Hyrox with eight stations and 8km of running is over five times that.

Beyond being more accessible to competitors who are less inclined to run, DEKA also has lower space demands for organisers.

‘The reason DEKA is becoming more popular is because gyms can host them, and for anyone who’s into functional fitness, it allows them to do them more regularly,’ Collenette added.

‘There’s only five or six UK Hyrox events a year, but there’s probably triple as many DEKA events in the UK, if you know where to look for it.’

The initial buy-in is enough that organisers are considering adding more spaces and even a pairs event.

‘It just shows that people are interested in it,’ Ravenscroft added.

‘Whether they’re interested after they’ve done it, who knows?’

In the future, organisers are eyeing bringing the DEKA Mile – an intermediate event with 10 runs of 160m each – to the island.

DEKA Strong stations

Zone one: 30 RAM roller alternating reverse lunge

Zone two: 500m row ergometer

Zone three: 20 box jumps/step over

Zone four: 25 med ball sit-up throw

Zone five: 500m ski ergometer

Zone six: 100m farmer’s carry

Zone seven: 25 calorie air bike

Zone eight: 20 dead ball wall over

Zone nine: 100m sled push/pull

Zone 10: 20 RAM roller burpees