Rijen, March 2, 2008 - Men 10,200 m

We could not take pictures of the greatest race of the 2-day event in Rijen. The battery of the camera burnt out after 2200 pictures, so we had to fall back on our reserve system, which took 5-10 minutes to be set up. All-Black Greg van Hest took the lead right after the start. The 34-year old Brabançon was actually playing a home game. He had been out of serious competition due to injuries for a long time, and started his real preparations only a few months before the nationals of 2008. David Hemstede (95) is playing at way too high stakes, and will pay the price for it later in the race.

In the background, we can see defending champion Michel Butter (1) staying to the shoulder of the only opponent he could rate capable of a real challenge, Patrick Stitzinger (3). 37-year old Marco Gielen (15), who came in second behind Kamiel Maase in Asten in 1998, started his preparations even later than Van Hest, and like Van Hest, he intended to sell his life dearly. Right behind him is Gerwin van den Hurk (4), one of the few Dutch youngsters that have made substantial progress in the winter of 2007-2008. The same goes for Joost van den Ende, who turned 20 less than two weeks before this race. He is running just behind Stitzinger, left from Butter. We can only see the 7 of his bib #67.

We took this picture after about 4500 metres of the race. Tilburg Road Runner Van Hest is on his own, and even Butter and Stitzinger are not in sight yet. It is obvious that he is not playing a silly prima donna game, but hard ball. How long can he keep this up? He has had only 3 months of serious preparation, and since we do nót believe in the partiality of God, we should not expect miracles to happen.

This picture has been taken no less than 8 seconds after the previous one, and still, Butter and Stitzinger have a lot of ground to cover before they reach the spot where we photographed Van Hest lately...

Do you see that very little tree right along the trail? Van Hest passed it some 15 seconds ago! It is really time to go to work for Butter and Stitzinger, and they know it.

Gerwin van den Hurk, a protégé of septuple cross country champion and head coach of Prins Hendrik Vught, Tonnie Dirks, has taken position 4, and intends to keep it from now on. He has some work to do though, with Dennis Licht (13) and Marco Gielen (15) on his tail, and Sander Schutgens (2) quickly closing in. Van den Hurk is trailing Butter and Stitzinger by only 10 seconds, so the game is not over yet.

Schutgens is 6-8 seconds behind Van den Hurk, and takes Michel Basemans (86) and Dennis Weijers (14) with him.

This is Colin Bekers of PK Dodewaard, the track club of deceased Pieter Key. He is about 4-6 seconds short of Schutgens here.

Neo-senior Joost van den Ende. Can he shake off Gert-Jan Wassink (16), Raymon van den Berg (23), and David Hemstede (95) for good? Believe it or not, only 42-44 seconds have passed by since Van Hest was here.

These are Jorit van Malsen (19), and Erik Negerman (6), some 55 seconds after Van Hest.

The last time Butter was on this particular spot, was 6.56 minutes ago. Things have changed dramatically. None of his opponents has passed the little sand hill on the far right of this picture yet. We can't see the hill, which is a little to the left of the tv camera team on the motorbike, that needs some "cheating" to catch up with Butter now ...

Stitzinger has joined forces with Van Hest, the man he just caught up with. They have yielded sixteen seconds to Butter, and with less than 1½ lap to go, they are defending their last chances.

We had to change SD cards, and in the meanwhile, Schutgens, Van den Hurk, Licht, Gielen, Basemans, and Weijers have slipped through. Van den Ende, who has done a great job already, is now trying to get rid of Negerman and Weijers. He is truly one of the few new seniors in the Netherlands, that is never satisfied, and always searching for new horizons. After about 7 kilometres, he is only 1.16 minutes behind Butter, the great leader.

Wassink, Van den Berg, and Hemstede have been knocked out of the top ten by Van den Ende. They are facing a gap of six seconds, with a lot more to come.

Rens Dekkers (11) and Alex van der Meer (66) are battling for rank fifteen, some 1.45 minutes behind Butter.

We waited another three minutes to take more pictures of the rest of the field, but then it was high time to return to the finish. Butter is already passing the gate for a last loop of about one kilometre.

Stitzinger has shaken Van Hest off, but is trailing Butter by more than 30 seconds now. Way too much ground to cover in just 1200 metres.

Van Hest, who is really running out of gas now, has lost ten seconds on Stitzinger. Can he hold on to the bronze, for Schutgens is known to be very strong in the last stage of the race?

Schutgens has left Van den Hurk and Gielen behind, but he is still sixteen seconds short of the bronze. The man with the yellow microphone, left on the picture, is Frans Heffels, the race director of the famous Warande cross country in Tilburg in November, usually in the same weekend as the NCAA regionals.

Butter is certain of another gold medal in by light years the most prestigious Dutch national title. He is 50 seconds ahead of Stitzinger, so not even an acute injury can stop him any more. Klaas Lok won 6 times, Tonnie Dirks 7 times, and Kamiel Maase 8 times. Butter is 'only' taking his second gold here, but he is only 22 years old. All of his great predecessors were older when they took their first national title in cross country.

Butter has the big smile of the true champion, and great winners do usually not look tired at all.

Silver medalist Stitzinger is smiling too. He did not start very well in this cross country season, but came closer to Butter is every race since Tilburg on November 11, 2007. He knows now that Butter must have held something in reserve in all those great battles in Soest, Egmond, Breda, and Schoorl.

Van Hest is also laughing, and he should, for only few insiders would have put their money on his bronze medal at the Dutch nationals cross country of 2008.

Number four Schutgens is clearly not satisfied, and why should he? Last year in Wageningen, he lost the battle for gold with Butter by only four seconds, and now he has finished fourth at 1.15 minutes.

This official is telling Schutgens that Van Hest has been disqualified, and that Schutgens has moved up to the bronze medal. Schutgens refused to take it. "This is not the way I want to take bronze. Only Van Hest deserved to win it."

The disqualification of Van Hest caused a lot of disorder and confusion between the fences after the finish line. This news did not reach us until we saw it on NOS Teletext, back at home some 1.30 hours later. We were not to blame, for the speakers, Frans Heffels and Frans Jacobs, did not give the audience any hints at all in their comments. Heffels and Jacobs have been around in the greater Tilburg-Breda area for several decades, and Rijen lies right in the middle of it, so they would have been the first to be informed of such decisions by the judges.

We had to take off only a few minutes after this race, and did not even have the time to attend the victory ceremony. If we could have stayed a little while longer, we would certainly have noticed the empty place at the victory podium.

Very many photographers stood behind the finish line, and made it impossible for us to take finish pictures of Dennis Licht (6th), Michel Basemans (7th), and Dennis Weijers (8th). Weijers is out of breath, and unable yet to drink the orange "saccharine" substance in the plastic bottle he holds.

Licht, who hoped (and probably still hopes) to qualify for Beijing olympics on the steeple chase, is clearly disappointed. We can't see the expression in the face of Basemans, here at his left.

Van den Ende is one of the happiest runners so far, for he has just beaten Bekers for place ten. We can assure you, that he is happier with the pace of his progress, than with his tenth place.

Bekers is meditating, reviewing the race of today, and perhaps thanking the Supreme Being for allowing him to make it this far at the age of 29. He may not have granted him the rank of cardinal, but how many would make it with him to bishop?

		Men 10,200 m				real rank #
1	1	Michel Butter	1985	AV Castricum	31.17	1
2	3	Patrick Stitzinger	1981	Pegasus	32.08	2
#	8	Greg van Hest	1973	Tilburg Road Runners	# 32.14	3
3 #	2	Sander Schutgens	1975	Pegasus	32.32	4
4	4	Gerwin van den Hurk	1986	Prins Hendrik	32.39	5
5	15	Marco Gielen	1970	Scopias	32.47	6
6	13	Dennis Licht	1984	Phanos	33.27	7
7	86	Michel Basemans	1987	DES	33.30	8
8	14	Dennis Weijers	1986	Phoenix	33.36	9
9	67	Joost van den Ende	1988	Seven Hills Running	33.50	10
10	5	Colin Bekers	1979	Loopgroep PK	33.53	11
11	6	Erik Negerman	1975	GAC Hilversum	33.58	12
12	23	Raymon van den Berg	1982	Prins Hendrik	34.05	13
13	16	Gert-Jan Wassink	1985	Argo	34.09	14
14	95	David Hemstede	1979	Climax	34.13	15
15	11	Rens Dekkers	1981	Hera	34.18	16
16	76	Alex van der Meer	1977	Prins Hendrik	34.22	17
17	54	Jorrit Pels	1987	Rotterdam Atletiek	34.32	18
18	43	Noël Keijsers	1973	Prins Hendrik	34.38	19
19	34	Edgard Creemers	1975	Leiden Atletiek	34.43	20
20		Pim Molenaar	1987	Trias	34.46	21
21	19	Jorit van Malsen	1988	Hellas	34.47	22
22	28	Jeroen Veldhuis	1975	AAC	34.53	23
23	35	Tim Pleijte	1985	Dynamica	34.57	24
24	18	Wim Nieuwkerk	1981	Tilburg Road Runners	35.04	25
25	105	Olfert Molenhuis	1983	Groningen Atletiek	35.11	26
26	65	Thomas Poesiat	1988	Haag Atletiek	35.19	27
27	79	Niels de Bruin	1979	BAV	35.33	28
28	41	Yennick Wolthuizen	1984	DOKEV	35.36	29
29	64	Tim Brouwer de Koning	1961	Leiden Atletiek	35.37	30
30	70	Peter Res	1978	AV Castricum	35.44	31
31	90	Renzo Roumen	1975	Caesar	35.53	32
32	78	Peter Heusschen	1976	GAC Gemert	35.54	33
33	42	Thijs Feuth	1981	Leiden Atletiek	35.57	34
34	20	Maikel van Eekelen	1987	Attila	36.10	35
35	87	Ruud van der Wal	1978	AV'34	36.14	36
36	37	Hidde Tangerman	1977	AAC	36.17	37
37	91	Jeroen van Dijke	1976	Leiden Atletiek	36.27	38
38	44	Bart van Aalst	1979	Prins Hendrik	36.27	39
39	68	Allan van Hulst	1985	Nijmegen Atletiek	36.33	40
40	88	Niels Govers	1984	Oss'78	36.37	41
41	71	Milco Driessen	1988	Almere'81	36.44	42
42	89	Tom Bellord	1986	Hylas	37.04	43
43	99	Michael Groeneweegen	1983	Waterweg	37.10	44
44	48	Ferdy van der Heide	1985	Hera	37.11	45
45	55	Samuel Nadaj [unatt]	1988	Ciko'66	37.15	46
46	101	Vincent Trinthamer	1978	Sparta	37.20	47
47	63	Frank Wouters	1980	Typhoon	37.26	48
48	106	Alfi Damen	1978	Sprint	37.31	49
49	27	Ralph Apeldoorn	1976	Leiden Atletiek	37.35	50
50	73	John van Bussel	1975	Pegasus	37.39	51
51	52	Jarno van Miltenburg	1988	Hellas	37.49	52
52	25	Arno van Doorn	1980	Haag Atletiek	37.51	53
53	82	Bas Bodewes	1987	Parthenon	38.19	54
54	45	Jan Jouke Vos	1982	AV Heerenveen	38.32	55
55	98	Harmen Korfage	1988	Hera	38.37	56
56	61	Bernard Heshof	1970	Typhoon	38.42	57
57	100	Kevin Schaap	1987	LAAC Twente	38.46	58
58	81	Jamal Malik	1981	Altis	38.47	59
59	30	Simon van den Enden	1974	Phoenix	39.00	60
60	36	Frank van Eijk	1963	't Jasper Sport	39.05	61
61	96	Frans Pasmans	1978	Loopgroep PK	39.15	62
62	38	Gideon Kok	1986	Hera	39.21	63
63	97	Mark Ravesloot	1982	Tartlétos	39.34	64
64	75	Bart Gerrits	1980	Tartlétos	39.59	65
65	39	Wouter Nijkerk	1987	AV'34	40.37	66
66	62	Mark Dackus	1976	Atletiek Maastricht	40.49	67
67	80	Ramon Holtus	1978	Phanos	41.01	68
68	103	Ronald Reiche	1965	Sparta	41.17	69
69	49	Mark Voermans	1984	Spiridon	41.54	70
70	51	Koen Voermans	1987	Spiridon	41.56	71
71		Steven Wolhoff	1975	Sparta	42.16	72
72	92	Roy Eversteijn	1984	Olympus'70	42.22	73
73	31	Richard Holstege	1985	AV'40	42.22	74
74	58	Johan Baas	1984	Hollandia	43.14	75
75	83	Frank de Graeff	1974	Veluwe	43.39	76
76	93	Tim van Leeuwen	1984	Olympus'70	43.53	77

#		disqualified ('unlawful' outfit) - Schutgens refused to take the bronze medal - he felt that only Van Hest deserved it
		time of Van Hest is fair approach, based on time of our photo camera (with intervals rounded up to multiples of 2 seconds)