23rd July 2013 07:28
He said he was going to win and he did. He was fastest in the heats and then he was fastest in the final. But still Pieter-Jan Hannes does not quite believe he hung the first medal of his career round his neck in the European Athletics U23 championships in Tampere.
'Ever thought of melting down a gold medal?' muses Pieter-Jan on his website.
'Because in all honesty, where would you hang something like that? Rest assured, I won't melt it down. Actually, I'm surprised I have not lost it already given my orderly disorder. But I haven't lost it. And even if I do, I will still have the title.'
So he does. But he was actually far more confident he was going to win it than his astonishment at owning a gold medal suggests.
After all, he had been going around telling everyone beforehand that he was going to win.
'I've been telling everyone in Belgium that I am going to win in Tampere,' he admitted just after he came off the track.
'In the beginning, everyone was like, come on dude, be real. People were frowning at me, but I have turned my own steep ambition into reality. This is just fantastic.'
The fact that his friends doubted him may have something to do with the fact that one year ago he broke his foot, plus the fact he had never won anything before.
Two years ago he competed in the European Junior championships and finished 11th, hardly auspicious.
'After the broken foot everything was going really fast,' he explained. 'After every training session I was more sure I could win it.'
He certainly ran the race as though he expected to win. Taking the pace practically from the gun he was only headed for the space of 100m from the bell to the 300m to go point. The rest of the time, Hannes was in front and out of danger in what turned out to be a physical race.
'At the start lots of guys were pushing and pulling. But the pace was way too slow, 50sec after 300m. So I took the lead and tried to counter the attacks. I knew I had gold with 300m to go.
'I had the wind at my back and was stretching my legs. I knew if they wanted to catch me now they were going to have to be really good.'
The improved training can be seen in the results for the 20-year-old Belgian this year. In June he set a lifetime best 3:35.97, which is also a Belgian U23 record. Then at the beginning of July came another personal best in the 800m of 1:47.30. So the credentials were there for him to carry out his threat of winning.
And a more delighted winner in Tampere it would be difficult to find: 'I'm really glad I did it and I hope every Belgian enjoyed it with me. With this title Belgium is just that little bit richer. Ultimately this medal contains a little bit of every Belgian but especially me.'