Willem Renders fought his way to 5000m gold with a forceful display at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships on Friday (8).
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
On the last lap, he had to fend off Sweden’s Karl Ottfalk who first attacked him on his inside on the back straight and them switched his attack to the outside on the home straight. But the resolute Renders stuck to his task, executing a fine tactical display to win in 14:14.59.
It was just 0.19 ahead of the silver medal winning Swede, with Norway’s Magnus Øyen, who had earlier raced in the 1500m heats, taking bronze in 14:15.32.
Tactical race
Renders took up the early running, leading the pack through 1k in a modest 2:59, setting the tone for a tactical affair. Soon afterwards Slovakia’s Filip Jancik, Ireland’s Cillian Gleeson and Turkyie’s Ali Tunç moved to the front to set a brisker pace going through 2k in 5:51.
The pack slowed again though and went through 3k on 8:50. With three laps remaining, Renders muscled his way to the front again with Spain’s Oscar Gaitan in close company. As they entered the last lap, Renders steadfastly maintained his place in front as Ottalk and Øyen began to threaten.
But hugging the inside every step of the way, the Belgian, sixth over 3000m at last year’s European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica, held on for a career-best win to date.
“I tried to run a tactical race, but it was very hard to do it because there was a lot of pushing and going back and forth,” said Renders. “So, I do not think I ran a perfect race, but in the end, you can only be happy about it with the European title after your name.
“The thing I will remember the most is the team spirit at these championships. It is very hard to imagine where I will get in the next few years. I just hope to keep enjoying what I do. Just have fun, otherwise you cannot keep doing it. For the moment, I would like to stick to these disciplines. But maybe in the future, I will go for even longer distances.”