Essex athletes Paul Gravatt (pictured) and race partner Jo Barber will compete at the 2026 PUMA HYROX World Championships in Stockholm on Sunday 21 June, racing in Mixed Doubles in the 55–59 age group, while also using the challenge to raise funds for Havens Hospices.
Gravatt and Barber qualified for the World Championships by winning their age group at HYROX Katowice in February and will now take on some of the world’s best age-group athletes with the aim of becoming HYROX World Champions.
The HYROX World Championships are the pinnacle of the global HYROX season, bringing together qualified athletes from around the world to compete for the title of Age Group World Champion. The 2026 event takes place at Strawberry Arena in Stockholm from 18 to 21 June, with Mixed Doubles racing scheduled for Sunday 21 June.
Alongside preparations for Stockholm, Gravatt has also pursued qualification as a solo athlete, and qualified via a second-place finish at Hyrox Barcelona last month in the Men’s Pro Solo 55-59 Age Group. However, a knee injury aggravated in that race has forced him to focus solely on the Mixed Doubles event.
Gravatt comments: “At my age, it takes a lot of effort and structure beyond just training to be competitive and stay consistent. Special thanks to the team at Unique Training Club for their support and making the gym available out of hours for Jo and me to train and of course to our coach Sam Bilbie (herself a multiple Hyrox Age Group World Champion and World Record holder).
“But without Andy Curtis and the elite team of physios at Lyfe Health in Bournemouth and Bristol, who’ve managed to keep me pretty much injury free this season with a programme of preventative “pre-hab” treatments until Barcelona, I’d not be competing next weekend. Lyfe Health’s whole ethos is about keeping people of all ages consistently injury free so they can pursue the active lifestyles they crave – whether walking the dog daily or competing in elite sports.
“They’ve done a great job to get me through 10 Hyrox races to the pinnacle of the Hyrox season and prescribed an intensive course of Shockwave treatment after my Barcelona set-back, treatment expertly executed by my local physios at Revive Health in Chelmsford – so I’m ready to race hard with Jo next weekend”.
Raising money for Havens Hospices
His campaign is supporting Havens Hospices, which provides specialist care and support for babies, children, young people, adults and their families living with complex or incurable conditions. The charity’s services, including Fair Havens and Little Havens, are provided free of charge, but rely heavily on public support and fundraising.
Havens Hospices states that it must raise more than £208,000 each week to continue delivering its care across Essex. Gravatt has set a fundraising target of £5,000, with every donation helping the charity continue to provide comfort, dignity, respite and practical support to local families facing some of life’s most difficult circumstances.
Gravatt adds: “To compete at the HYROX World Championships as one of the 0.5% of the sport’s 1.5million competitors is a huge honour, but to do it while raising money for Havens Hospices makes it even more meaningful. Havens Hospices does extraordinary work for families across Essex, and if this challenge can help raise valuable funds and awareness for the charity, that will matter just as much to me as the race itself. Of course, once we get to Stockholm, Jo and I will be giving everything we have to try to become HYROX Age Group World Champions.”
The campaign also reflects the principles behind ERA Group, where Gravatt works with organisations with annual revenues >£25M to uncover inefficiencies, optimise costs and create stronger foundations for growth.
ERA Group have also funded Gravatt’s 2025/6 Hyrox campaign and have agreed to donate 10% of any contingent fees arising from 9am readers who contact Paul (pgravatt@eragroup.com) in the next 30 days for a completely free “opportunity assessment” for their business, where ERA Group’s specialists will endeavour to identify marginal gains from cost optimisation and process improvement including a total “cost of risk” review.
Supporters who would like to back the challenge and donate to Havens Hospices are encouraged to contribute through Gravatt’s Just Giving page (link below) ahead of the World Championships. As the countdown to Stockholm continues, the campaign combines elite age-group sport with a simple aim: to make a meaningful difference for local families while pursuing a world title on the international stage.