Belgium ends with 5 medals: “A result above our expectations”
Nafi Thiam and Noor Vidts took gold and silver in the pentathlon, Elise Vanderelst won the 1,500 meters, Thomas Carmoy won bronze at height and Isaac Kimeli silver in 3,000 meters. Belgium finished in a good fourth place in the medal ranking.
Team Belgium’s goal of returning from Torun with two medals has been fulfilled. “We are well above our expectations,” said head of delegation Gery Follens on Sunday evening in a reaction to Belga. “It’s an unexpected result. In the medal ranking, we are leaving behind countries like Germany, Spain and France. The ‘flow’ was present on Thursday, with the qualification of Carmoy. A good start is so important. ”After that we continued to relentlessly, despite the fact that we had sixteen drafted athletes.
The bottom line is that over fifty percent of the athletes qualified for the next round. This generates a lot of publicity for our sport. We have seen a lot of young people here achieving great performances and it is promising for the future. These athletes got to know each other and had a great four days. The atmosphere in the group was excellent and that has an influence on our performances. “On Sunday, the Belgian Tornados were not happy to be in lane 2 as defending champions and not to know in advance the regulation that would be used.
“We only heard about it on Saturday and then lodged a complaint with the organization, but of course it is too late to change anything. For more than ten years they have been the flagship of our sport and it is exceptional, but the time has come to think about the future, after the Olympic Games in Tokyo of course. ”
Eline Berings had a heckled Sunday. The former European champion, 34, was due to compete in the 60m hurdles semifinals but was not allowed to start due to a positive PCR test on Saturday. A rapid test and a new PCR test on Sunday showed she was false positive, but it was too late.
“If there is one person who does not deserve this, it is Eline. But health comes before sport and we have to follow the rules at such a time. There is nothing but us. can do. “