{"id":602016,"date":"2026-09-16T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602016\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:04:09","slug":"hyrox-toilet-controversy-malaysian-athlete-zarif-zakaria-claims-toilet-break-cost-him-a-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602016\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyrox toilet controversy: Malaysian athlete Zarif Zakaria claims toilet break cost him a race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI got disqualified for going to the toilet before the race. How come people can race while having diarrhea and not get disqualified?\u201d Zakaria wrote on social media. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s time to retire from Hyrox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another participant questioned Zakaria\u2019s account, claiming other competitors had done the same without being disqualified.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it was something else you did?\u201d the participant asked.<\/p>\n

Zakaria again asserted it was because of the toilet. <\/p>\n

\u201cLate start. Going to toilet before the race, the point is why late start got disqualified and why can athletes continue racing even when they have [diarrhoea] during the race?\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Hyrox rules, competitors are assigned a start time. If a participant starts at a different time without permission, they can be listed as an \u201cIncorrect Start Time\u201d violation, which carries automatic disqualification, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

\"MelbourneMelbourne athlete Joanna Wietrzyk at the Hyrox event in Beijing. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

Zakaria\u2019s comments come after Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fuerste apologised and announced rule changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologise to all that were directly or indirectly affected, as well as to everyone who felt like we did not handle the situation like we should have,\u201d Fuerste said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHyrox made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuerste said event procedure and rulebook changes began immediately after the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyrox China has also submitted a request for rule changes concerning hygiene standards. The organisation has warned that threatening or bullying participants could result in a ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI got disqualified for going to the toilet before the race. How come people can race while having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,25445,49638,36334,27126,6028,2562,99932,1741,4187,127,21171,2837,9881,18984,8456,22220,16718,14805,67246,15896,48040,111,139,69,7798,21674,213,43211,29889,6123,295690,377,47370,296737],"class_list":["post-602016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-allowed","tag-athlete","tag-bowel","tag-break","tag-champion","tag-claims","tag-competitor","tag-controversy","tag-cost","tag-despite","tag-disqualified","tag-during","tag-facing","tag-finish","tag-fresh","tag-going","tag-him","tag-hyrox","tag-incontinence","tag-joanna","tag-malaysian","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-race","tag-scrutiny","tag-sports","tag-suffering","tag-toilet","tag-while","tag-wietrzyk","tag-world","tag-zakaria","tag-zarif"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}