Groningen athlete Bram Buigel failed to reach the semi-finals at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul on Thursday.
He ran a good attacking race in the first heat and finished third. Buigel, who comes from Warffum, was the fastest of the rest in the heats in which the first two athletes qualified directly for the semi-finals in 1:47.95. He then had to wait a long time to see if his time was fast enough to continue. That was the case until the fourth series, in which the numbers three and four ran faster than the Dutch champion Buigel.
Tony van Diepen, the other Dutch participant in the 800 meters, also did not reach the semi-finals. He finished third in his series in 1:48.50. Van Diepen has been struggling with an injury lately, so he missed the NK indoor.