Lieke Klaver just failed to complete her palmares of the World Athletics Championships. The athlete from Enkhuizen finished fourth in the 400 meters last night. Pole vaulter Menno Vloon has qualified for the final after qualifying.
So Klaver just missed a medal in Eugene in the US. The Dutch record holder finished fourth in 50.33 seconds after a good race. The world title was won by Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas (49.11 seconds). The North Holland athlete improved her Dutch record in the series and semi-finals of the 400 meters. She went to America with 50.80 seconds and eventually improved it to 50.18 seconds.
“This is the most beautiful place”, Klaver was clear after the race NOS. “I’ll do it anyway. Who will be fourth in the world now. I think it’s so clever. In the final and fourth: that’s really good.” The Enkhuizense know very well what she still has to work on. “I learned so much after the Olympics. The whole learning process suits me. By making a lot of mistakes, things are going really well now. There will come a time when I will also be with a flag after a race.”
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Menno Vloon
By making a jump over 5.75 meters, Zaankanter Vloon qualified for the pole vault final. He was one of the top twelve jumpers who will compete for the medals in qualifying. Rutger Koppelaar, the other Dutch participant, was unable to follow Vloon in the final. He finished thirteenth, so just outside the final places.
The Zaanse Vloon simply went over the starting height at 5.30 meters. He failed on his first attempt at the 5.50 meters, but went well on the second jump. He could then easily scale up to 5.65 meters. At 5.75 meters the first two attempts failed, but in the end it turned out three times as a charm.
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Relay teams
The relay teams 4×100 meters could not enforce a place in the final. The men’s team finished sixth, as did the women. They had to finish in the top three in the series or belong to the two fastest losers in time.