Student Douwe Amels wins national men’s high-jump championship

On Saturday, athlete and Erasmus student Douwe Amels won the national men’s high jump title at the Dutch indoor track & field championship in Apeldoorn. Despite coming out tops, the 23-year-old Business Law master student wasn’t entirely satisfied with the day’s results.

This was mainly due to his jumping 10 cm lower than his personal record. “I injured my back two months back. Apparently, this affected my performance more than I had expected,” the Delft native tells Erasmus Magazine. “I only cleared 2.12 metres – hardly the result I had showed up for that day. Things went really well during the trainings, but a competition clearly requires a different kind of preparation.”

Amels’s personal indoor record stands at 2.22 metres – a result he was hoping to improve on Saturday. “Fortunately, it was clear pretty early on that I would win the title.” While Dion van Kessels’ result came close (2.09 metres), the runner-up required so many more attempts than Amels to clear this bar that the day’s outcome was clear from an early stage.

Since 2011, Amels has been chalking up both indoor and outdoor national high-jump championships. The only year Douwe missed out on the Dutch indoor title was 2013, when he came second. In the upcoming outdoor season, Amels hopes to place for the Olympics. To do so, he will probably have to clear 2.30 metres – 2 centimetres higher than his personal outdoor record. ES