Rijen, March 2, 2008 - Men 1989-1990

Forty-one junior men A (born in 1989-1990) line up for their race over 6300 metres. This is the right wing, with Wilbert van Vliet (523) and Wesley Pauël (502) as some of the medal candidates.

Here we have the true favorite, Abdi Nageeye (530). He has smartly taken a position in the center of the starting zone, so that he will not have to waste any time when the narrow gate to the motor cross country course comes. Nageeye is an immigrant from Somalia, who used to play soccer until last August or so. Within a couple of months, he was transferred into the best of all Dutch junior distance runners, as he convincingly proved in Tilburg, in early November. Some stories about him may be exaggarated, but his talents are beyond question.

Vito Verbeek (526) is expected to be one of his closest rivals, though no one is likely to stay with Nageeye for the entire race. Number 519 is Tom van Oorschot, who has done better in this winter, than he may have expected. He is a teammate of Wilbert van Vliet, Wouter Dilling (518), and his twin brother Bas van Oorschot (520). The four are defending the national title for Seven Hills Running Team from Nimwegen, and this should be a piece of cake. The best three athletes will count, and no other club team comes anywhere near them.

Alwin Groen (504) is another candidate for silver or bronze. Dilling is the one on his right side, bended forward.

None of the young men in this outer left wing is likely to cause Nageeye any trouble.

Nageeye, who is at least 15 centimetres shorter than most of his opponents, is not yet completely in the frontline, but he has already mastered the only part of the race that could possibly cause him some problems.

This picture has been taken after about 500 metres of race, and it clearly shows the difference in size between Nageeye, and for example, Dilling and Van Oorschot. Most of the rivals of Nageeye run in front of him. Jeroen Reintjes (532) is leading, while Van Oorschot, Dilling, Pauël, Verbeek, and Van Vliet have virtually locked him up. Sooner or later, the course will widen up, and Nageeye will make his escape from this little Alcatraz.

Verbeek and Van Vliet are not looking very cheerful. Do they already know the outcome of this race? Directly behind them are Sjoerd van Marrewijk (541), Nout Jansen (512), and Groen.

In this early stage, Groen is escorted by Elmar Ruiter (508), and they have Nick van Tol (524) and Rob Tijdink (540) hanging in their slipstream.

While the junior men have completed their first small loop of 900 metres in the open area, we quickly moved to the nortwestern end of the red loop of 1800 metres, and taken position on top of the highest hill in the forest. This hill is situated at just about the 1000 metres point of the red loop. So this is Nageeye after 1900 metres of race, all on his own already.

It is no surprise, that Van Vliet leads the pursuit, ahead of Pauël, and Verbeek, who has trouble to keep up with the others. Van Vliet is ten seconds short of Nageeye at this point.

Verbeek has just found out that he is no match for Van Vliet and Pauël today. The margin is four seconds already, so he wishes to settle for rank four in the 4400 metres to come.

Reintjes trails Nageeye by 18 seconds, but he is probably more concerned with Verbeek now.

Groen is about twenty seconds behind Nageeye, and has Reintjes within his grasp.

Van Oorschot is seventh at 26 seconds from Nageeye, and goes to work. He brings Jansen with him, and his teammate Dilling has to pass on this deal.

Dilling has taken rank nine, and in orther to hold on to it, he will have to shake David Vonk off in the 4400 metres ahead. It seems that Van Marrewijk can't stay with them any longer.

This are Maarten Jumelet and Mark Nouws. They clear this hill 34 seconds after Nageeye.

Joost Hummelink is still #16 of the race, but can he hold on to it? He is a half miler and metric miler in track races, and if it were up to him, the race would be just about over here.

These are Thomas van der Heijden (546), Nick van Tol (524), and Arnold Vreeker (527), with Erik Roeloffs (538) a couple of seconds behind.

Here we have Jeroen Verboom and Bas van Oorschot, ranked 22nd and 23rd, if we are not mistaken. No way that this Van Oorschot can be glad with the way this race goes.

Nageeye has added 1800 metres to the 1900 of his previous passage, and used only 6.20 minutes for this loop!

Van Vliet and Pauël have managed to limit their loss to a mere two seconds in this lap. They still have Nageeye in sight, but must be running out of gas. How much longer can they keep up with Nageeye's pace at a distance of fourteen seconds?

Groen is trailing Van Vliet and Pauël by sixteen seconds, so even his hopes for a silver or bronze medal are quickly fading away.

We waited a little over three minutes after the last passage of Nageeye, but then it was high time to head for the finish zone. We make it just in time to the first gate through the fence around the forest to meet Nageeye taking the other direction for the last time. He does not look tired at all, and has only 1200 metres left to cover. Five minutes have gone by since the last time we pictured him, so he will be back at these crossroads in about two minutes. He will still have to run a couple of hundred metres along the fence, but all together, he will surely be back in the finish zone in less than four minutes, so we can't afford to stay here very long.

Believe it or not, Van Vliet and Pauël are still only half a minute behind Nageeye. Pauël has moved a little bit out of the slipstream of Van Vliet, so we can expect his attack for silver at any time now.

Groen is only 12 seconds behind Van Vliet and Pauël, so the race to the victory platform may not be over for him yet.

Reintjes is 18 seconds behind Groen, while Van Oorschot and Jansen are quickly closing in on him.

Van Oorschot and Jansen have only six seconds to make up with 5th ranked Reintjes, and Van Oorschot is known to be a quick finisher.

Dilling has bypassed Verbeek for rank 8, but unwillingly gave him a ride. Can he still dump him somewhere? For the record: Nageeye passed this point one minute ago, we can already see him comming back from the hill, so now it is really time to make our move through the swamps and other barriers that separate us from the party zone.

Little more then 2.20 minutes have passed by since we pictured Dilling and Verbeek, and after some detours to avoid the very busy gateways, we arrive just in time to welcome Nageeye, and be the first ones to congratulate him with his victory, just like we promised a few weeks earlier in a discussion on the indoor nationals in Ghent.

We have never met this close, and if all of the photographers that filled this zone after the senior races, would have been here now, it might have been much more difficult to take these exclusive shots of Nageeye.

Pauël reaches the finish 44 seconds after Nageeye, but more important, he has shaken off the feared Van Vliet for good. His face and right forefinger prove his happiness.

Van Vliet, who is known to be rather introvert, can't conceal how disappointed he is, but he is also having some problems with his stomach or liver.

Groen is not over-celebrating his fourth rank, but not really upset either. Look at his thumbs, what are they telling us?

Van Oorschot has proven to come up to our expectations, and convincingly outsprinted Jansen for rank 5.

Van Oorschot may be very tired, but he is content. "I did it," is his expression.

Reintjes takes rank seven, 1.22 minutes behind the sort of extraterrestrial Nageeye.

Verbeek is certainly not overwhelmingly pleased with rank 8, but he has given Dilling no chance whatsoever in the final 300 metres or so.

Dilling is certainly not satisfied with rank 9. He probably expected to stay with teammate Van Oorschot to just about this point, and then fight it out with him. But his club team of Seven Hills has taken its fourth national championship in a row, and with individual ranks 3, 5, and 9, they were never this superior.

Jumelet is glad to rank 10, and so are Van Marrewijk, Tijdink, and Vonk with their final positions.

		Men 89-90, 6300 m
1	530	Abdi Nageeye	1989	Loopgroep Aart Stigt	21.38
2	502	Wesley Pauël	1990	Almere'81	22.12
3	523	Wilbert van Vliet	1989	Seven Hills Running	22.19
4	504	Alwin Groen	1989	NOVA	22.37
5	519	Tom van Oorschot	1989	Seven Hills Running	22.48
6	512	Nout Jansen	1989	Tartlétos	22.51
7	532	Jeroen Reintjes	1990	Atletico'73	23.00
8	526	Vito Verbeek	1990	Hellas	23.16
9	518	Wouter Dilling	1990	Seven Hills Running	23.26
10	507	Maarten Jumelet	1989	Leiden Atletiek	23.44
11	541	Sjoerd van Marrewijk	1989	Olympus'70	23.46
12	540	Rob Tijdink	1989	Caesar	23.49
13	522	David Vonk	1990	Zuidwal	23.52
14	546	Thomas van der Heijden	1990	Sprint	24.01
15	508	Elmar Ruiter	1990	AV Heerenveen	24.07
16	539	Emiel Admiraal	1990	Trias	24.15
17	525	Quinten Hennekam	1990	Parthenon	24.23
18	537	Mark Nouws	1990	Loopteam Ed Sligcher	24.28
19	538	Erik Roeloffs	1990	Loopteam Ed Sligcher	24.34
20	524	Nick van Tol	1990	GAC Hilversum	24.42
21	527	Arnold Vreeker	1989	Trias	24.45
22	500	Joost Hummelink	1989	Nijmegen Atletiek	25.01
23	517	Jeroen Verboom	1989	Triathlon	25.12
24	536	Jochem Pansier	1990	Oss'78	25.12
25	548	Hielke Schurer	1990	Energie	25.25
26	533	Robin Teunissen	1990	Venray Regio	25.29
27	544	Lennart van der Burg	1989	AVV	25.29
28	542	Thomas Luttikhold	1990	AVA'70	25.30
29	551	Tim van Dongen	1989	Scorpio	26.01
30	506	Adriaan Fransen	1990	AAC'61	26.01
31	503	Willem Dudink	1990	SAV	26.11
32	531	Arne Mulder	1990	PEC 1910	26.14
33	547	Camiel Kruiswijk	1990	BAV	26.14
34	510	Fabian Vergne	1989	Ilion	26.33
35	529	Robby van Reeuwijk	1989	Ilion	26.53
36	549	Joeri Baarda	1990	Tilburg Road Runners	27.00
37	550	Wilbert Grooters	1990	Pallas'67	27.06
38	534	Tim van der Hoeven	1989	Pijnenburg	27.14
39	545	Stef Verwaaijen	1989	AVA'70	27.59
40	509	Robbin Pieterman	1989	Ilion	29.46
41	515	Frank Wouda	1990	AV Haaksbergen	30.28