She became world champion last Sunday in the 4 x 400 meter relay at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow. However, this world title is no guarantee for Cathelijn Peeters from Dongen that she will also be part of the Dutch relay team at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. “Everything can still change: whoever runs the fastest in the summer can join the team,” she says on Sunday in the program De Zuidtribune on Omroep Brabant radio.
The selection of six to eight girls for the team will be announced at the beginning of July, Cathelijn expects. And then it only becomes clear the evening before the race who is allowed to run. Very exciting, she agrees. However, it is already clear that she will take action in Paris. She has already qualified individually for the 400 meter hurdles. Her goal? At least the semi-finals. “But of course the final would be great.”
“I used to be much better at hammer throwing.”
When Cathelijn started athletics, her favorite part was not the hurdles or running at all. She liked hammer throwing. “And now I’m doing the four hundred meter hurdles,” she laughs. “Even then, but I was just much better at hammer throwing.” The fact that it ultimately became the 400 meter hurdles has everything to do with the progress she made in that event at a certain point. While she no longer made any progress in hammer throwing.
And now the athlete from the Prins Hendrik athletics club in Vught is about to make her debut at the Olympic Games. If she is allowed to run there in the 4 x 400 meter relay, she will do everything she can to contribute as much as possible to a great result. “What is needed for a place on the podium? That we all individually run even faster,” she says combatively.