Fitness Training
An epic race to the top of Ibiza Castle crowns Sweden champs – with Canada and Slovakia chasing close behind. Here’s how they did it.
“I can’t believe it! Can you believe it?”
Linnea Stenson had just displayed the mental and physical prowess to overcome nine outrageous obstacles in a blistering time, but yet she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that she and her team-mate Daniel Ekström had just won the first-ever edition of Red Bull Ibiza Royale.
Ekström couldn’t believe it, either.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “We applied, but we never thought we would make it to Ibiza, and now we’re standing here with the trophy!”
Swedish duo enters wild race to Ibiza Castle
It all started when they heard about a new and unique kind of obstacle race: the wildest race to the top of Ibiza Castle. Like more than 40,000 other mixed-pair teams around the globe, Ekström and Stenson gave themselves a team name – the Swedish Blue Bulls – and submitted their application. The next thing they knew, they had been named as one of the teams that would represent Sweden among nearly 200 teams from 50 countries at the Red Bull Ibiza Royale World Final.
“Both of us do obstacle course racing at home in Sweden,” Stenson explained, “so we have trained quite a lot for it, but not as a team, so that was a fun challenge.”
Besides learning to work together, the duo also realised that they needed to prepare for a different kind of race than what they were used to. With nine imaginative and entertaining obstacles, each designed by a content creator or Red Bull athlete, this experience would be about fun and fitness. For all the teams attending the three-day Ibiza experience, the schedule kicked off with exclusive fitness sessions as well as qualifiers for the Grand Final.
Ida Mathilde, Seb Toots, and global stars bring obstacles to life in Ibiza
Meanwhile, the obstacle designers themselves were on hand, excited to see their creations come to life. Among them were Red Bull snowboarding legend Seb Toots (Sébastien Toutant) of Canada, Red Bull Obstacle Course Racing champion and HYROX competitor Ida Mathilde Steensgaard of Denmark, Red Bull professional esports great Arslan ‘Ash’ Siddique of Pakistan, content creator David Jones of New Zealand, Spanish social media star Nil Ojeda, content creators Paul Frege of Germany and Adrian ‘Aditotoro’ Vogt of Switzerland, adventure sports and fitness creator Demi Bagby of the USA, and French content creators Charles Poujade and Mélanie Buffetaud.
At last, when the seeding time trials and elimination heats were done, the Swedish Blue Bulls were among the 20 teams moving on to the Grand Final. And at that point, it was time to put their heads together on strategies. “We talked about how we should perform differently from the qualifiers to the Grand Final, and we made some small changes,” Ekström recalls. “It paid off.”
The Grand Final took place in front of a cheering crowd, with the early evening sun dancing on the sea below the castle walls. Ahead of them, the teams faced the nine obstacles across a 1.4km course that wound upward through the castle with 90 metres of ascent. Featuring themes like ‘Spaghetti Boulevard’ and ‘Stay In One Piece’, the obstacles tested speed, strength, balance and reaction; getting wet, falling into foam pits, jumping through mystery doors, dodging swinging axes and clambering through tunnels were all part of the challenge.
Swedes take the crown as Canada and Slovakia round out the podium
Both Ekström and Stenson agreed that the easiest obstacle was a water slide, while the hardest was “Castle Twitch,” because it included an element of chance. (Leaping over a foam pit to try to pass through one of three doors – two of which were sealed.) But even that didn’t slow them up for long, and their final time of 7m 59.79s crowned them the king and queen of Ibiza Castle. Canada’s Xavier Fagard and Beatrice Moyen Sylvestre claimed second, and Slovakia’s Nikolas Rákoci and Ivana Šoltysová took third.
With a special Red Bull experience as their prize and teams from around the world to celebrate with, Ekström and Stenson had a lot to look forward to before they headed back to Scandinavia, but they took a moment to offer their tips for success.
“I think it was pretty important to have good communication during our running to keep a pace both of us could manage,” Ekström noted.
Stenson nodded in agreement, saying, “Train a bunch of different skill sets, and then practice teamwork and communication.” With a smile, she added, “And apply!”
Find out more about Red Bull Ibiza Royale at www.redbullibizaroyale.com.