2025 iF3 Masters World Championships Was a Complete Disaster

This past weekend the International Functional Fitness Federation, also known as the iF3, hosted the 2025 iF3 Masters World Championships in Australia. On Sunday, issued a cryptic statement on Instagram that mentioned “organization and execution errors” at the competition. It left many asking what happened.

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It appears that about everything that could have gone wrong did. On top of that, it appears that decisions made trying to correct problems only exacerbated the situation.

Yesterday, I received a string of emails detailing some of the issues that plagued the 2025 iF3 Masters World Championships. Apparently Hiller was also in the process of investigating the situation.

All of the issues that Hiller brought up in his video (watch below) were shared by those I spoke with regarding the matter.

I did, however, get a really interesting photo of the heat sheets being used. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this…so keep on reading.

First, here’s a recap of the issues that athletes encountered over the weekend…

Venue. The iF3 Masters World Championships were held at the Brisbane Showgrounds, a multi-purpose venue. According to those competing, no one knew this meant the competition would be outside.

In fact, the area for the competition floor is actually used for a petting zoo for the annual countrywide fair.

Additionally, it was reported that the competition floor was on a slanted surface with uneven rubber mats under the rig.

On top of that, it was reported that the rig was not bolted to the floor, causing excessive shake when athletes were on it. There were no risers for shorter athletes to get up to the pull-up bar when needed. Athletes were using boxes (used for box jumps) or smaller foam blocks to assist.

Spectators. One of the complaints I heard is that there were no seating options for spectators. In an email sent to athletes, organizers said the competition would have a “festival atmosphere” and that there would be plenty of seating. With that, spectators were allowed to being fold-up chairs. However, it appears by plenty of seating they meant there was room to sit in the chair you brought.

SkiErgs. Every iF3 competition has six tests, the first of which is an endurance-based test. All of the events were announced two weeks before the competition. Test 1 was supposed to be:

For Time:
4,000/3,400-meter BikeErg
2,000/1,700-meter Row
1,500/1,200-meter SkiErg

But according to event organizers, the truck responsible for delivering the SkiErgs broke down. And because the SkiErgs were not at the venue by Friday morning when Test 1 was to take place, the iF3 revised Test 1 to replace the SkiErg with line-facing burpees.

The problem is that this email was sent to athletes at 4am on Friday morning.

Test 1 Execution. Ok, so now that the workout was modified, the next problem was the execution. Rather than having each heat finish the workout before the next heat started, the organizers decided to waterfall the heats – meaning that the next heat would begin a certain amount of time after the heat prior started.

This created multiple issues.

First, there was only one judge per lane, meaning that the judges were only watching the burpees. No one was watching to ensure the athletes were finished the prescribed distance.

Second, there was not enough time between the start of heats such that faster athletes would catch up to the athlete ahead of them and have to wait to get on the next machine.

Third, there were two clocks being utilized. However, they were difficult for athletes to see and it appears that judges were using the wrong clock from time-to-time for athletes’ scores.

Friday Night. On Friday night, organizers sent an email acknowledging the problems that occurred that day.

In that email, athletes were given a link to submit an appeal for their time on Test 1, the endurance event.

Gretchen Kittelberger, President of the iF3, concluded this email by recognizing that the competition did not go well on Friday, but was committed to improving it for the remainder of the weekend.

Endurance Test Re-Do. Following the disaster that was Event 1 on Friday, organizers proposed a new Endurance Test to be completed to replace the original scores…because of the controversy.

However, this additional test did not need to be completed if all athletes in a division agreed to use the scores from the original Test. If there is not a unanimous decision within the age group division, the new endurance test would need to be performed.

As you might expect, athletes did not agree. Thus, they had to do the new endurance test.

When the new endurance test started, it turned into chaos and the organizers stopped the competition.

Heat Sheets. As you can tell by now, the competition was a train wreck. And as I mentioned earlier, the heat sheets were just another example of how poorly the competition was run. Take a look at this…

And yes, I’m serious. This is an actual heat sheet being used over the weekend.

So what next? Well, according to that original statement put out by the iF3, organizers will be conducting a “thorough debrief” of the weekend.

Australia was supposed to host the 2026 iF3 World Championships (the elite divisions), not just the Masters. It has been agreed that Australia will not host the competition and that a new search for a host will begin promptly.

And finally, the iF3 Vice President, Mel Robinson, has resigned from the iF3 Board of Directors.

And if you don’t believe Hiller or myself, here is a firsthand account from an athlete who competed at the iF3 Masters World Championships.