RSM student Marc Serralonga Arcués and Nijmegen medical student Mareleen Meij won the ten-kilometre race in the Nederlands Studenten Kampioenschap (Dutch Student Championships) on Saturday.
No fewer than two big athletics events were on the programme in Kralingen last weekend. As well as the Erasmusronde race, organised annually by student running club EUR Roadrunners and Erasmus Sport, students also competed in the Dutch Student Championships Road Race. Hundreds of athletes gathered at the fantastic PAC athletics association track for the start of the Erasmusronde (five, ten or fifteen kilometres), or the NSK (ten kilometres).
Ten kilometres: the most prestigious distance
More than 160 athletes registered for the ten kilometres, spread across participants in the Erasmusronde (open registration) and the NSK (only for academic higher education and higher professional education students). They ran the ten-kilometre races simultaneously following a certified route through Kralingse Bos.
After 35 minutes and 5 seconds, RSM master student Marc Serralonga Arcués from Barcelona set the winning time in the NSK. “I looked at last year’s results prior to the competition. I thought that I could possibly beat the winning time.” The Business Administration student admitted that he spends a lot of time training as well as studying: “I train five times a week. Studying in the university library, going home, training… that’s what most of my days are about.” Those efforts really paid off, though, because the Catalonian can now officially be called the fastest student in the Netherlands.
‘Not much competition’
Ramon van der Wilde, who lives in Vlaardingen, came just thirty seconds later (00:35:32) and was the first ‘non-student’ to cross the ten-kilometre finish line. To his amazement, this meant that he won the Erasmusronde. Among the women, Carola Schot from Heerjandsdam won the gold medal in the Erasmusronde with her time of 00:42:38.
Marleen Meij (medical student in Nijmegen) was the first student to cross the finish line and so won the women’s Dutch Student Championship. With a good time of 00:40:52, the triathlon runner easily won her first NSK title. “There wasn’t much competition today. I’d expected to be overtaken by other students, but that just didn’t happen.” Meij has come second in the NSK twice, last year and the year before, so she was eager for a win: “This year I really wanted to win for once. And I managed it, which is just brilliant!”
Five and fifteen kilometres
The Erasmusronde five and fifteen kilometres both started earlier in the afternoon. Whereas the 5K runners ran a lap around the Kralingse Plas, a route comprising both big and small laps was set out for the fifteen kilometres. Feidhlim Ó Dubhlaing from Ireland and working in Rotterdam was the first to cross the finish line (00:17:24) in the five kilometres, making him the first winner of the day. Annemieke Bloem from Leiden was the strongest among the women, with a time of 00:20:23.
For the fifteen kilometres, Linda Hoek (01:09:12) and Erik Nieuwenboom (01:00:48) from Rotterdam were the first-place winners.
