The Netherlands’ athletics team achieved its best-ever finish at the European Athletics Team Championships, placing fourth overall in Madrid behind defending champions Italy, Germany, and Poland.
It marked a historic moment for the Dutch , whose previous best team finish was sixth, recorded in both 2014 and 2017. The Star hurdler Nadine Visser, a European indoor champion and World Indoor bronze medalist, had earlier narrowly missed out on victory in the 100m hurdles. Visser was edged out by Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji.
Taking it to her Instagram account after the championships, she wrote;
“Casual weekend in Madrid
12.39 (+2.2) @ hurdles AND a National record with the 4×100 🤩 (42.02) AND a 4th place with the team, best result EVER! 🧡🦁
The Dutch squad impressed across the board, with eight event wins and five championship records. The women’s 4x100m relay team featuring Visser clocked a national record 42.02. The men’s quartet set their own national best of 37.87 in the 4x100m.
Femke Bol
Femke Bol stormed to victory in the women’s 400 metres. Jessica Schilder dominated the shot put, and Jorinde van Klinken delivered in the discus. Menno Vloon cleared the competition in the men’s pole vault, putting the Netherlands in the lead after Day 1.
Though the team slipped to fourth by the end of Day 2 including a tough moment when Nick Smidt pulled up injured in the 400m hurdles , they stayed in medal contention until the very end.
On the final day, Dutch men made a strong statement. Xavi Mo-Ajok clocked 20.01 in the 200m for a personal best and the second-fastest time ever by a Dutch athlete, behind only Churandy Martina. Niels Laros claimed the 5,000m with a perfectly timed kick, and Stefan Nillessen took silver in the 1,500m.
Meanwhile, head coach Laurent Meuwly was full of praise to the team.
“We achieved our target of finishing in the top five and were in contention for the medals right up to the last event.”