When Lee Tuck left West Yorkshire for Thailand at the age of 21, he could never have imagined that the journey ahead would culminate in him winning the Asian HYROXChampionship for Malaysia at the age of 36.
Working as a tiler and unable to make it as a professional footballer in England, Tuck reached out to a friend in Southeast Asia in an attempt to realise his dreams, and the rest is history.
“I was in an out of semipro football, and I wanted to play full-time. I saw on Facebook that a friend of mine, Michael Byrne, was playing in Thailand. I asked him if he could get me a trial. I ended up getting a trial at Nakhon Pathom and never looked back. From there, I played 15 years in Southeast Asia, including six years in Thailand and seven years in Malaysia and ended up playing for the (Malaysian) national team.”
When he decided it was time to head back to England with his young family, Tuck then discovered a new passion in life, as he swapped to the football pitch for gym flooring.
“I moved back to the UK around August 2023. A friend of mine had a gym and I started training there. I had never heard of HYROX, had never pushed a sled before, didn’t know what a SkiErg was. I didn’t have a clue.
“But my friend had a spare ticket for a competition in six weeks’ time and asked if I wanted to try it out. So I did that race, really enjoyed it and just fell in love with the sport. I needed to replace the football element of my lifestyle and from there, it’s just grown on me in the past two years.”
Tuck is just one of thousands who have caught the HYROX bug, and it is clear to him why it has such a sudden rise in popularity.
“I think the reason it’s grown so fast is that everyone can do it. It has your basic functional movements – push and pull and running. From beginner and all the way up to elite level, everyone can take part in a competition.
“It’s a community-type of sport that brings people together. They race at different levels and, after the first race, they think they can do better the next time and it draws them in. Events have a great atmosphere with live DJs, food.”
In addition to the social side, Tuck sees the relative simplicity of HYROX as one of the factors that gives it the edge over CrossFit.
“I think they have different benefits. But with HYROX, you can start from zero and do a race within a matter of weeks. With CrossFit, you’ve got to learn a number of techniques. You’ve got be careful not to get injured. There’s different skills, and you have to do handstand walking, heavy lifting, pull-ups and all sorts of gymnastic workouts.
“You can very quickly get into HYROX with minimal skills and basic fitness levels. That’s where it has a massive advantage.”
While Tuck’s first steps in HYROX were very much driven by the need to remain fit and physically active, he soon found his competitive instincts kicking in. The high levels of fitness he had developed in his football career made the transition to a new discipline that much easier than it would be for the average person.
“I did the first race in Birmingham, six weeks after returning to the UK. I did well for a first-time race with no expectations. I just went into enjoy myself. But obviously, I had been competing professionally for 15 years and I wanted to do well, but it wasn’t my ambition to compete and win.
“Two weeks later, I compete in an event in Barcelona, and I won that race. It was a men’s open race and I won it overall. From that moment on, I thought I could get quite good at it. I got the bug of winning, but I tried to keep the same mindset that I didn’t have to win. It was a hobby that I just wanted to enjoy first but also to try and do my best in every race. The standard is getting better and better, so winning races is very difficult now.”
But Tuck has continued to win, and this year he became Asian Champion for the second time in the 35-39 age group category.
“Originally, I went to the Asian Championships because there was a relay race for the Asian teams. I was captain of the Malaysian relay team in Hong Kong last year. I thought if I was going to travel all the way to Hong Kong to represent Malaysia in a relay, I might as well do the individual race as well. That worked out really well as I won that race overall. Obviously, I wanted to defend that title in Singapore this year.”
For those who want to take up the sport, Tuck recommends a bit of coaching to get started on the right track.
“First of all, you need to understand the rules and stations and how the race works. Ideally, you would work with a coach or someone who can help you through the process of preparing for a race. Or even go to local gym where they put on that kind of training. Just have a structured training programme to help you prepare for a race.”
Before HYROX, of course, Tuck’s football career was as unconventional as it gets for someone from Halifax, England. His first stop in Thailand was not in the bright lights of Bangkok, but Nakhon Pathom – a provincial town about an hour’s drive from Thailand’s bustling capital city.
But Tuck would soon be on the move and he did end up in Bangkok, where he spent three productive years at Bangkok FC, which earned him a move to a bigger club in the northeast of the country.
“The highlight in Thailand was probably getting the Golden Boot at Bangkok FC. I had a really good spell there – I think I scored 55 goals in 75 league games. Winning the league with Nakhon Ratchasima and getting promotion with them was another highlight. I love Thailand. I love the food and the culture and I loved playing there.”
But despite enjoying life in Thailand, Tuck was tempted by the offer of a very different challenge, with Abahani Limited in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
“They offered me a good contract. I thought I would maybe do a season there because it would be good financially and a good experience, and then I would go back to Thailand.
“As soon as I got there, I quickly understood that the facilities weren’t so great. The lifestyle was very different and there was a lot of poverty. Emotionally, there were a lot of ups and downs but I put myself into the mindset that ‘I’m here now and I’ve signed until the end of the season. I’ve got a good opportunity with a good club to win some trophies.
“So I just decided to make the most of the experience because no one from my background – Halifax, West Yorkshire – is likely to experience this way of living, inside Bangladesh with a football club. So I went all-in and we ended up winning the league unbeaten and the FA Cup,and we were runners up in the League Cup. I had a really good experience in the end.”
Tuck was soon on the move again, however, and it would lead to him becoming a full international. He had spells with Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu and Sri Pahang as his years of residence in Malaysia qualified him for national duty.
“The football federation wanted a big push to improve the country’s FIFA ranking and the ability to win more games. The club that I played for were really interested in having me there for a long time and they wanted to naturalise me.
“After five years, according to FIFA regulations, you can apply. I think they selected three or four players and there was a two-to-three-year plan for them, building up to that five-year term. When they approached me about the possibility, I was definitely interested. Playing for the national side is quite a privilege.”
Playing for ‘Harimau Malaya’ was a somewhat surreal development in a remarkable career after such humble beginnings.
“When I was 21, I was working as a tiler on construction sites, playing semi-professional football, driving a banger of a car, staying with my mum and dad.
“Just over 10 years later, I was playing for the national team of Malaysia. I never thought that was going to happen. I thought I might be in Thailand for one season, maybe two… You never know where life can take you if you keep working hard.
“My family were obviously chuffed for me because it was good for my career. It put a smile on the faces of friends and family to think, ‘How is that even possible for little Lee from Halifax’?”
Now 37, Tuck remains open to a return to the football pitch, having originally left Malaysia due to a difficult financial situation at his club.
“I’ve never officially said I’m retired. This season, I have spoken to a few clubs. There have been three teams in Malaysia who have offered me contracts. What they could offer just fell a bit short. It has to be the right team in the right situation.”
While HYROX has been an exciting new sporting challenge, Tuck has no doubt about his number one passion.
“It’s got to be football. It’s very hard to replace what football has done for me. Stepping away from football was my decision but it has been a hard thing to do. It’s part of my identity. It’s always going to be there with you.”
