Belgium dominates at world athletics indoor championships in Glasgow

Let’s start with defending champions in the 4x400m, the Belgian Tornados. Superlatives are of course in order, but they did have to fight for their title. It was Jonathan Sacoor, Dylan Borlée, Christian Iguacel and Alexander Doom that were tasked with defending the prestigious title they’d acquired at the world championships in Belgrade two years prior, and it was Doom who made the difference. The Tornados were in second place when Doom received the baton and showed that he had the legs to defeat the USA and the Netherlands. With Doom’s major last effort, the Tornados finished in an impressive 3 minutes, 2 seconds and 54.

The fact that Doom was able to put down such an amazing performance is all the more remarkable since he did it the day after winning gold on the individual 400 metre run. The 26-year-old from Roeselare set a new Belgian record by running his 400 metres in 45”25. That’s 19 hundredths of a second faster than previous record holder Julien Watrin, who could not attend this world championship due to battling cancer. The Tornados dedicated their victory to him.

Let’s not forget the ladies either, though. Noor Vidts made Belgium proud by dominating the pentathlon, winning gold for the second time in a row – a world first in itself! Even still, she remained humble and critical of herself, saying that “it is not so straightforward after all” to win and seeing room for improvement in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Finally, a retrospective on Belgium’s athletic prowess wouldn’t be complete without the mention of a fourth medal, that of Eliott Crestan who took home bronze on the 800 metre run.

Congratulations to all of our remarkable and inspiration Belgian athletes!