Sunday, October 1 marked the inaugural Spartan Race Team World Championship, with international co-ed teams comprised of three elite racers vying for the title on a demanding 8.5-mile “Super Course.” Team USA (Robert Killian, Alyssa Hawley, and Ryan Woods) emerged victorious, outpacing 26 other tenacious teams to earn first place.
Team Canada (Mikhail Gerylo, Austin Azar, and Faye Stenning) was the second team to cross the finish line but after a penalty for a missed burpee was added to their time they officially finished third. The Czech team (Tomas Satinsky, Zuzana Kocumov, and Tomas Tvrdik) crossed the finish line third but ended up second because of the Team Canada missed burpee. All World Team racers also qualified for and competed in Saturday’s World Championship Beast event.
The rules were a bit different for the Team Race than a typical Spartan Race. The teams could help each other on many of the obstacles. If one team member missed their burpees, they as a team split up the burpees, tagging each other in and out. This made for extra strategy on the part of the racers and ultimately for Team Canada created a counting error.
2017 Spartan Race Team World Championship
| 2017 Spartan Race Team World Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | Athletes | |
| Team USA | Robert Killian, Alyssa Hawley, Ryan Woods | |
| Team Czech | Tomas Satinsky, Zuzana Kocumov, and Tomas Tvrdik | |
| Team Canada | Mikhail Gerylo, Austin Azar, and Faye Stenning | |
Full Team Results
Curious … what was the criteria for choosing the teams, or who made the choices? Ryan Atkins posted on Instagram that he was disappointed he and Lindsay Webster were not chosen for Team Canada – I can’t imagine how they could be left off. Thanks for your reporting.
Roger, during the Finish Line interview, one of the guys said that Faye had chosen them to be on her team. Faye is also on the Spartan Pro Team. I agree that athletic caliber wise, even with most teams having 1 lady & 2 men, I still think a Faye, Lindsay, Ryan Team Canada would have been awesome to see. TOTAL ASSUMPTION – Ryan did run the UB on Sunday (and WON), so perhaps he declined… or perhaps Spartan wanted to keep things more in-house… When I heard the Team USA announcement, I remember asking myself why Hobie Call wasn’t included.
It’s a politics thing. Ryan Atkins and Lindsay Webster are well-known Battlefrog athletes (and Battlefrog is Spartan’s business competitor). Simply put, Spartan doesn’t want it to look like Battlefroggers trash Spartans on Spartan courses. Note that the USA team is 2/3 Spartan Pro Team members, who have made business and sponsorship deals with Spartan Race, Inc. Since Canada and USA both have “Spartan” sponsored athletes on them and the Czech team doesn’t have any business affiliation (so it’s neutral in Spartan’s book), Spartan Race, Inc. wins no matter how you look at it.
Yeah, it’s petty. Also keep in mind that Spartan Pro Team members have probably signed NDAs which prevent them from disclosing company secrets etc. What they say at the finish line isn’t necessarily true; it just sounds nice.
I would guess Hobie Call declined being on the USA team because he’s at the end of his career and doesn’t want to hold the young people back. He’s a nice guy and probably knows it’s best to “quit while he’s ahead” rather than “crash and burn.”