The European Championship final of 4×400 relay for women was blood-curdling on Sunday evening. But that tension might have been more after the finish than during the game. For an hour there was a discussion whether Cathelijn Peeters from Den Bosch and Nina Franke from Heesch and Lieke Klaver and Femke Bol could be on the highest step.
It was a bizarre hour, Cathelijn Peeters admits. “In the beginning it was still nice, nothing seemed wrong. We partyed on the track. ” Final runner Femke Bol was convincingly the first to cross the line, in a new Dutch record.
The atmosphere turned when the Britste team protested. Cathelijn Peeters would have made a mistake during her substitution with Femke Bol. De Bossche cool the baton and got off the track, but she would have hindered the British. The protest was honored and the Dutch team was disqualified.
“If this had really led to disqualification, I would have felt very guilty,” says Peeters a day later, with the gold medal around her neck. The disqualification was reversed after protest from the Dutch team. Cathelijne was not aware of any harm. She had not seen or felt the Britste at all. “I don’t have any eyes in mind. I understand that it looks like I’m hindering her, but the athletics union had images of the side on which you can see that there is quite a bit of room between her and me. She was shocked by me, but I didn’t hinder her. ”
And the jury finally drew that conclusion, so Cathelijne was able to cheer for gold for the second time. But Peeters does not see that as an advantage. “I would have preferred that it would have been cheering once.”
Also for Nina Franke the outcome of the race felt ‘a roller coaster of emotions’. She was still in disbelief that she had achieved the European Gold, so the subsequent disqualification was certainly not comprehensible. “I did not see that decision coming at all. Waiting for the final result of the jury seemed to take eternity. That made it all extra exciting and caused a double emotional discharge.”
The Brabant input to women’s relay team was therefore large, with Cathelijn Peeters from Den Bosch and Nina Franke from Heesch. Both athletes train at Prince Hendrik in Vught. “It is a Brabant medal for 50 percent,” says Peeters laughing.