Hyrox athlete, Joanna Wietrzyk, has broke her silence after soiling herself during a race, explaining her side of the story while giving an apology to fellow competitors

Joanna Wietrzyk has broken her silence on criticism after soiling herself during an event. The Hyrox athlete holds the women's world record with a time of 54:25.

However, during a recent event in China, she began suffering from diarrhoea. Photos online show the athlete completing burpee broad jumps, lunges and wall balls with excrement visible on her legs.

An event organiser confirmed that contaminated equipment had been removed from the race, while affected lanes were closed off. It was also confirmed that the venue would undergo a deep clean, including carpet replacement, ahead of the next event the following day.

Wietrzyk acknowledged that the backlash surrounding the incident had been "a hard situation to navigate" as she repeated her earlier apology for pressing on during the fitness race in Beijing. The 24-year-old posted a video on Instagram from Hamburg, Germany, where she is gearing up to make her return to competition in the sport's Elite 15 division on Friday.

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She said: "I've had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks on everything that happened in Beijing, and firstly I just want to say that I'm truly truly so sorry to everyone that I affected whether they were spectators or participants out on that race floor for my decision to choose to continue to race.

"Having that time to reflect I've really learned a lot from the situation and I am very very sorry for it all. But I also want to say thank you to every person who has reached out to support and given me this overwhelming amount of support over the past couple of weeks.

"It's been a very hard situation to navigate for me and very confronting as well so all the support, whether it was personally or through my team has been honestly so incredible and it goes a lot longer than I can truly express right now."

On the upcoming event, she said: "I’m back out there on the race floor, and I’m super excited to go back doing what I love. Hopefully, see you all out there."

Both the organisation and Wietrzyk, who completed the race in 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds, faced a torrent of criticism online, with many pointing to the serious health risks of permitting her to carry on competing.

Wietrzyk, who hails from Melbourne, initially posted a selfie from a hospital bed on Instagram in the aftermath of the race, with the caption: "Go hard or go home...a win is a win. In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I'll be back soon x."

She subsequently removed the post and released a statement apologising for the incident, in which she also gave up her victory. Organisers also overhauled the rules in the wake of the incident in September, putting measures in place to ensure competitors are withdrawn from the race should similar circumstances arise in the future.

Wietrzyk has also since apologised in an interview with the BBC. She explained: "It was my decision to continue racing so I take full responsibility for that.

"I didn't really think about those around me...the decision that I made in hindsight was the wrong decision and I'm truly sorry for everyone that I did affect."