On Sunday 30th of August the Belgian national championships long distance will take place in Stoumont. We are sure that all Belgian athletes are looking forward to this competition. It will be the first important competition of the Belgian season and that's why we also make a comeback with 'delaatstepost'.
The race will count as a World Ranking Event. 10 years ago the long champs were organised on the same map with Fabien Pasquasy (H21E) and Greet Oeyen (D21E) as winners. Both athletes are among the favorites again. The coursesetter will be Pierre Marchal.
The terrain is one of the most hilly mapped areas in Belgium. The Belgian champions will be physically strong athletes, but they will also need a stable technical performance and avoid mistakes on this tricky map.
Map Stoumont (2011)
In men's elite class we count 42 participants. The course measures 13.9km and 590m uphill (37 controls). On the startlist we are missing the Belgian star Yannick Michiels (training in Switzerland at the moment) and also the young talented athlete Mathias Blaise (absent because of exams). Also Tristan Bloemen (recovering after a bike crash) and Benjamin Anciaux (achilles tendon problems) are injured at the moment and probably don't show up at the startline.
Last years champion Geert Simkens is for sure one of the favorites for the victory. During the summertrainings with the military team he showed that he's ready. Also Fabien Pasquasy made a good impression during the regional races on relevant maps and he knows how to take the victory on this map.
Geert Simkens on the way to the victory in 2019
Because of the covid-19 situation, we didn't see a lot of results and it's difficult to predict who is in great shape at the moment. Clement Demeuse had some decent results at Oocup in France and finished just ahead of Gilles De Neyer. Also Thibaut Derenne and Francois Van Der Ouderaa competed at Oocup, but in 'ultimate class'. Specially Thibaut performed strong during the last stage (middle distance).
Other names we want to highlight are Tomas Hendrickx, brothers Leeuws (with Evert as champion in 2018), brothers Bastin, Joost Talloen (bronze medal last year), Jeroen Hoekx, Jeremy Bredo, Simon Krekels and Christophe Bernard. We are sure they are all motivated to fight for the podium.
The last one to mention is Michael Van Baelen who came over from Macedonia where he showed his good shape in some trail racing. We are curious how he'll handle the races with a map in his hands.
Probably there is still a black horse, who we forgot to name here and will surprise us with a strong performance.
Podium 2019 in D21E
In women's class the course measures 7.4km (370m uphill) and includes 23 controls. Anna Serrallonga always has been the big favorite during the previous years. This year she didn't prepare for a WOC (no forest disciplines) and also had problems with her knee for several months. Her first race will be the middle distance national event in Spa (one day before the Long champs).
Still she will be among the favorites also in 2020, but we expect Greet Oeyen to challenge her. Greet had some good trainings in France last month and will also compete in Fontainebleau next weekend.
Also Kim Geypen (with for sure the highest running speed), Fanny Tilkin (represented Belgium at WOC in 2019) and Liesbeth Van de Velde (bronze medal last year) are capable to fight for the victory.
We are also looking forward to the comeback from Miek Fabré and the debut from Lucie Arno in elite class. Also Hannah Thiels and Sandrine Defraigne will compete in elite class in the long distance champs for the first time ever.
Ems De Smul and Marine Sillien are still D20 and allowed to compete in junior class, but both talented athletes are also able to fight for the podium on the highest level.
Other names to highlight are the foreigners: Daria Moskalenko, Claire Sandevoir and Meri Chkripeska. Daria (10th in sprint) and Claire (31th in middle) had some good results at Jwoc in the past and Meri represented Macedonia at WOC 2019.
Feel free to guess for the top-3 in both men and women's class in the comments below.
