Australian HYROX athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has issued a public apology after continuing to compete in the endurance race after soiling herself.

Wietrzyk, 24, refused to stop competing despite streams of faeces flowing down her legs as she powered to victory during the gruelling event in Beijing on Saturday.

The Melbourne athlete’s decision to push on sparked ferocious criticism of the athletic competition for allowing Wietrzyk to continue competing.

Wietrzyk issued a statement on Thursday revealing she’d forfeited her win at the event and apologising to other competitors. 

‘I want to offer my sincere apology to the people of China, my fellow competitors, the spectators and the HYROX organizers for what happened during the race in Beijing,’ Wietrzyk wrote on Instagram.

‘I felt completely fit and healthy at the start of the race, with no reason to expect any illness. 

‘Looking back, I regret the decision to not have stepped off the track. I recognize that I should have made a different choice. 

‘I take responsibility for my decision to continue and am deeply sorry for the discomfort and disruption it caused.’

Wietrzyk (above) forfeited her win at the event and apologised to other competitors

Wietrzyk said she’d reflected on the incident and was ‘genuinely sorry to everyone who was affected’.

‘I am learning from this experience and will carry those lessons with me, including remembering that there is more to life than racing and knowing when it is right to step away,’ she wrote.

‘On reflection, I have decided to retroactively withdraw from the race and forfeit the points I earned.’

The Melbourne athlete then thanked those who supported her during the days of backlash following the event. 

‘Thank you to those standing by me, both as an athlete and as a person, during this time, and to everyone who has reached out with kindness and support,’ Wietrzyk wrote.

‘It means more to me than I can properly express right now. I will be taking some time to recover, reflect and look after myself and my family away from the noise.’

The incident on Saturday prompted HYROX co-founder Moritz Fürste to issue a personal statement pledging to implement immediate rule changes.

Prior to the weekend’s incident, official event rules punished athletes for minor infringements such as littering on the course or clearing their nose on the floor. 

Massive backlash from the incident (above) prompted HYROX co-founder Moritz Fürste to issue a personal statement pledging to implement immediate rule changes

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There were no rules relating to faecal matter.

Wietrzyk’s statement drew hundreds of comments within minutes of being uploaded.

Commenters were deeply divided on whether the apology was sincere or the result of public pressure.

‘This apology is just not good enough, not least because it has come far too late … Truly terrible sportsmanship putting your fellow athletes health at serious risk, never mind the spectators and volunteers,’ one wrote.

‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing but during that moment and time nobody knows exactly how they would have reacted,’ another said.

‘A real person would’ve apologised the same day. Not after almost a week later,’ another wrote. 

‘True actions of a fighter, not many people understand the mindset of the best in the world,’ another said.

Wietrzyk turned off comments under the statement, and her other posts, within an hour of sharing it. 

The Melbourne athlete had initially shared a post following her accident declaring ‘a win is a win’ but later removed it and refused to publicly comment on the situation.

Her coach, Chris Bayens, shared a statement on Monday calling out ‘hatred and personal attacks’ on Wietrzyk.

‘The mental health of athletes is shaped far more by the community around them, and right now that community should take a hard look at itself,’ Bayens wrote.

‘No one is perfect, not in sport, not on social media, not in real life. What happened was extraordinary. The hatred that has followed is ugly.’

Bayens vowed to continue supporting her and stressed that no one was prepared for what happened and that the decision to continue was made on the fly. 

‘Decisions were made under competition conditions by an athlete, judges and officials, all responding to a situation none of them could reasonably have prepared for,’ he said.

‘It is very easy to construct the perfect response once the moment has passed. Hindsight gives people time, information and distance that simply did not exist for those actually living it.

‘Those decisions can be reviewed and lessons can be taken from them. But judging someone’s intent, character or morality through the clarity of hindsight is neither fair nor honest.’

– READ MORE: Aussie HYROX athlete is suddenly deleted from sponsor Puma’s global website 

His absence ahead of the short trip to the Gtech Community Stadium is a massive concern for Alonso, who said only at Thursday’s pre-Brentford press conference: “In terms of injuries and in terms of the squad, we are having the last training session tomorrow so no one is ruled out. We will wait till tomorrow.”

Written under the pen name James Herriot, Wight’s stories are inspired by his real-life experiences as a veterinary surgeon in the Yorkshire Dales.

The series is set in the fictional town of Darrowby.

The Channel 5 adaptation, which began in 2020, is the second television version of the books, following the original BBC series that ran from 1978 to 1990.

The new series picks up in 1946, just after the end of the Second World War.

A synopsis in the Radio Times reads: “James (Nicholas Ralph) and Siegfried (Samuel West) must contend with the arrival of new vet, Granville Bennett (Caolan McCarthy), while Helen (Rachel Shenton) is forced to have a frank conversation with her dad Richard (Tony Pitts) about the future of the farm.”

It continues: “Elsewhere, Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley) must adjust to Siegfried and Dorothy’s (Maimie McCoy) deepening relationship, while Tristan’s (Callum Woodhouse) relationship with Charlotte (Gaia Wise) is threatened by the prospect of her potentially leaving.”

Samuel West, who plays Siegfried, hinted at developments between his character and his brother Tristan, played by Callum Woodhouse.

Speaking to the Radio Times, he shared: “The professional respect is made clear in this series, and I think Siegfried’s own sense of Tristan has stopped him really thinking of him in that way before.

“Eventually the evidence is clear that he’s turned into a very good vet.

“There is a moment of big change between them, and it’s overdue.”

All Creatures Great and Small full cast list for series 7

• Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot
• Rachel Shenton as Helen Herriot
• Callum Woodhouse as Tristan Farnon
• Samuel West as Siegfried Farnon
• Thomas Riches as Jimmy Herriot
• Isabella Ward as Rosie Herriot
• Anna Madeley as Mrs Hall
• Maimie McCoy as Dorothy
• Gaia Wise as Charlotte Beauvoir

• Patricia Hodge as Mrs Pumphrey
• Tony Pitts as Richard Alderson
• Imogen Clawson as Jenny Alderson
• Mollie Winnard as Maggie
• Caolan McCarthy as Granville Bennett
• Jade Greyul as Zoe Bennett
• Bruce Alexander as Geoff Hatfield
• Michaela Short as Mrs Townsend
• Geoff Lesley as Grandad Hollins
• Howard Harling as Mr Hollins
• Wendy Patterson as Irene Sparrow

Recommended reading:

When will All Creatures Great and Small series 7 be on TV?

The first episode of All Creatures Great and Small series seven will air at 9pm on Thursday, September 17 on Channel 5.

The remaining five episodes will air weekly in the same timeslot.

Episodes will also be available to watch on Channel 5’s streaming service.

Will you be watching the latest series of All Creatures Great and Small? Let us know in the comments.

It would be located at a site of an existing supermarket

A new Sports Direct store could open in Cambridge despite two others being just a few minutes away. Frasers Group PLC has submitted an application to Cambridge City Council asking for permission to rebrand a store on Cheddars Lane.

The site contains a Tesco supermarket and the application has sought permission for an allocated area to open a separate Sports Direct store at one end of the existing building. The company, Frasers Group, is the owner of the sports fashion chain Sports Direct.

The proposals include the installation of illuminated and non-illuminated signage to the front and side of the unit, rebranding as a Sports Direct store. Planning documents indicate the new signage would display the brand Sports Direct, if plans are approved.

The major retailer already operates two stores in Cambridge, with one in a shopping centre and one on a busy street. The store in Lion Yard shopping centre is around eight minutes away by driving and the Cambridge SD store on Fitzroy Street is around seven minutes away or less than a 20-minute walk away.

Sports Direct claims to be the biggest sports retailer in the UK, offering clothing, footwear and equipment from various fashion and sports brands such as Adidas, Nike, Converse, Lee Cooper and Sketchers.

In the book – Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, serialised in the Daily Mail – the earl claims that Charles, then the Prince of Wales, subjected him to a “stream of anger” after he insisted Diana would not have wanted Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk in her funeral procession.

Scientists are perplexed by the discovery of what looks like footprints on the surface of Mars.

Images captured by the Curiosity Rover show an unusual feature on the Red Planet’s surface – broad, shallow pits unlike anything researchers have previously spotted.

The discovery was made as Curiosity explored Mount Sharp, a vast mountain rising from the floor of Gale Crater.

The rover has been exploring Mars since landing in 2012, and despite more than a decade on the planet, it continues to find things that puzzle scientists back on Earth.

Small pits and depressions are relatively common on Mars. They can form when harder nodules or pebbles embedded in rock gradually weather away, leaving a hollow behind.

But the newly observed features are different. They are much wider and shallower than similar pits seen previously, and researchers could not identify obvious objects that might once have occupied them.

The Curiosity team used the rover’s cameras and instruments to examine the features in detail.
MAHLI and the Mastcam instrument captured overlapping images that can be combined to produce three-dimensional models of the pits and their structure.

The team does not believe the marks are actual footprints, but the unusual formations provide a new clue about the geological processes that have shaped this part of Mount Sharp.

The surrounding bedrock also provided plenty for Curiosity’s instruments to investigate. Mastcam images and measurements from the ChemCam instrument revealed layers whose texture and structure changed over relatively short distances.

Scientists say these variations could indicate changes in the conditions under which the sediments were deposited.

The rover also examined rough, grey layers that were more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. ChemCam, MAHLI and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) analysed the material, which may have a different chemical composition from the bedrock around it.

After almost 14 years on Mars, Curiosity continues to provide scientists with new glimpses of the planet’s geological history – and, occasionally, features they have never seen before.

In an image taken in 2013, UFO hunters thought they’d spotted a wrinkly mushroom on the planet’s surface.

MORE: Nasa finds ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ moon crater bigger than the Roman Colosseum

MORE: Scientists find 27 strange new objects hovering on the edge of our Solar System

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The closures are scheduled between September and November 2026.

The affected branches in the North East, operating under both the Lloyds and Halifax brands, are located in Durham, Gateshead, South Shields and Wallsend.

The move comes as more customers choose to manage their finances online, through mobile banking apps or over the phone, reducing demand for traditional branch services.

Lloyds Banking Group says customers who need face-to-face help can use Banking Hubs or branches run by Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland.

Customers of the three brands can access services across the group’s wider branch network.

Lloyds Bank Durham City Centre (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

The changes also form part of Lloyds Banking Group’s ongoing plans to bring Halifax customers onto Lloyds banking platforms, with some accounts and services set to be rebranded in the coming years.

Branches closing in the North East

Halifax

Durham: 1 North Road, DH1 4UQ. Closing date: September 29, 2026.

Gateshead: Jackson House, 24-26 Jackson Street, NE8 1ED. Closing date: October 19, 2026.

Lloyds

South Shields: 101 King Street, NE33 1DT. Closing date: October 12, 2026.

Wallsend: Royal Chambers, High Street East, NE28 8PJ. Closing date: November 3, 2026.

The four closures mean residents in parts of County Durham, Gateshead, South Tyneside and North Tyneside will lose local bank branches this year.

Customers are being directed towards alternative banking facilities and digital services.

The same announcement also included Halifax’s Redcar branch, scheduled to close on November 2, with customers directed to Middlesbrough.

He told Capital Breakfast: “They sent one of the casting directors to the school to audition a load of the kids there and my dad, obviously being in the industry, was like, ‘that is a complete waste of time, no-one has ever been cast from an open audition. I will get you one-on-one time with the casting director.’”