Hilary is fighting fit to take on world challenge

Meet Ireland’s fittest woman who’s about to compete in a punishing event to find the fittest person on the planet.

Personal trainer, and strength and conditioning coach, Hilary Riordan, 25, from West Cork, will jet off to Denmark with her coach and partner next week to represent Ireland in the gruelling CrossFit Games regional competition.

The event — described as the truest test of fitness that exists today — puts competitors through a brutal physical tests over three days of competition — from one legged squats to hand-stand push ups, from sprints to dead-weight lifts.

And if that wasn’t tough enough, competitors only find out what challenge they face seconds before each event starts, which means they have to be experts at all the events.

“It’s physically punishing and pushes you to your limits — to see how far your body can go,” Hilary said. “From my experience, it’s often the mind that gives up before your body. It’s a mental battle with yourself as much as anything.

“But I’m feeling good, I’ve no injuries, so it’s just a case of staying fit and healthy now before the competition.”

Hilary qualified from among some 4,000 CrossFit athletes all over Europe to compete against 47 others in the women’s individual section of the competition in Copenhagen the weekend after next.

The top three athletes will go on to compete the CrossFit World Games in the US later this year where a top prize of $1m (€718,248) is on offer.

Hilary, who runs Guerilla Fitness in Clonakilty with her coach and life partner, Brendan Walsh, discovered the sport about three years ago while she was living in New Zealand.

“It’s really addictive — I just got hooked,” she said.

Brendan said she’s the hardest working athlete he’s ever seen and has devoted the last three years of her life to competing at the highest level. She will be up against Olympic medallists in some of the specialities,” he said.

“It is incredibly challenging because you have to focus on everything. But she’s hitting good form and achieving a lot of personal bests in the gym.”

Hilary said they have been able to balance their sporting goals and personal lives very easily.

Brendan said: “Onlookers might find it strange that we are screaming at each other during training. But we feed off that.”

They both hope their participation at the sport’s highest level will promote the development of the sport in Ireland.

The regime

Are you fit enough to take on the CrossFit challenge?

Day 1

Event 1: Dead-lifting a barbell using the hang squat snatch technique.

Event 2: Handstand walk as far as possible.

Event 3: Fifty one- legged squats, seven muscle ups on the rings, 10 hang power cleans.

Day 2:

Event 4: Handstand push-ups, front squats, burpees, weightlifting.

Event 5: One climb, using hands only, up a 14-ft high rope, 200-ft sprints.

Day 3:

Event 6: 50-calorie row, 50 box jump overs, 50 deadlifts, 50 wall balls (throwing a medicine ball at a target), 50 ring dips, 50 wall balls, 50 deadlifts, 50 box jump overs, 50-calorie row.

Event 7: 64 pull-ups, eight overhead squats.