Dutch Athletics Team

IntroductionThe Royal Dutch Athletics Federation proudly presents its delegation for the IAAF WorldChampionships in Beijing, China. Eleven men and twelve women are entered for a total of 26events, including two relays.Not only is the delegation sizeable, there is considerable excitement in The Netherlands. DutchAthletics has been growing stronger and stronger for a number of years, just in time for theEuropean Championships on home soil next year, as well as the Olympic Games in Rio.In the 14 previous editions of the IAAF World Championships, Dutch athletes have won tenmedals. Two of them came two years ago, and both athletes who won them are back. After hisSilver in Moscow, Ignisious Gaisah is back at Long Jump. For this season, however, theversatile Dafne Schippers has switched her focus from Heptathlon (Bronze in 2013) to theSprints.The 23-year old has of course made her mark in the international scene this year, for exampleby bringing the Dutch 100 meter record below 11 seconds (10,92), by winning European indoorgold over 60 meters, and by reaching the podium at prestigious Diamond League meetings likeParis, London, Lausanne, and Monaco.Going into the Championships, Dutch athletics counts six athletes in the top-8 of the worldrankings of their event. Two more are in the top-8 of the qualifying list (which includes 2014performances).Highest ranked is Sifan Hassan, another young super talent. Starting competitive running onlyfour years ago, the 22-year old is already a reigning European champion, both in-, andoutdoors. With her recent Dutch record of 3:56.05, Hassan is second in the world this year, and16 th all-time.The Dutch are well represented in a number of events. In addition to Hassan, Maureen Koster’s3:59.79 is in the top-8 of the 1500 meters. In Heptathlon, The Netherlands is even representedwith a full complement of three athletes: World Indoor Champion Nadine Broersen (4 th in theheptathlon world this year), Nadine Visser (7 th ), and Anouk Vetter (8 th ).Dutch also fields two athletes in the men’s decathlon (Eelco Sintnicolaas and Pieter Braun), aswell as potentially in the women’s 1500 meters, 5000 meters (Koster and Susan Kuijken), and10,000 meters (Kuijken and European U23 champion Jip Vastenburg).More information about all Dutch participants in these championships can be found in thisbooklet, alongside statistical information, an interview with Sifan Hassan, and more.The best of luck to all participants in this tournament, and to the organizers!This booklet is dedicated to Ton de Kleijn. Among many things, our dear friend was one of thepremier Atletiekunie statisticians, a dedicated club- and federation volunteer, and chief editor ofthese Championship Team Booklets for the past ten years.Ton suddenly passed away in March of 2015 - Rest in Peace, Nest(sn)or!3