The Dutch Student Championship cross country running took place in Eindhoven last Saturday. Our previous chairman Jordi promised some short-distance events with starting blocks (!), which resulted in more than 165 students participating!
In the morning, the entire Stratumse Heide was taken over by a group of Gauls armed with red and white tape and a bucket of chalk. As most of the paths were being cordoned off, and hundreds of little tree stumps/roots were chalked white, the many dogs and their owners were confused with what was going on. Meanwhile, a lonely Gaul in his Obelix suit was catching some attention at the station while waiting for students from all over the country to transport to the race location in a small van.
At 14:30, the long-distance race started. Under a loud ‘go’ from the microphone guy (who ended up being jobless as there was no electricity for his amplification system because we were in the middle of the woods), about 80 people stamped along the beautiful course over some fairly narrow paths. Due to these narrow paths, the start was rough, which ended up causing some people to trip.
The women finished one lap before the men, and our secretary Carmen had to perform a sprint finish through the loose sand for the 3rd or 4th place, which she managed to win. Ex-Gaul and ex-student Michael was the first male to cross the finish line. Gaul Tom (after running alone for quite some time) managed to become second student. Ex-student Iris finished third in the non-student classification.
The short distance race started with the women. Before the race, some sprinting Gauls mentioned that the short distance cross was still too far for them, but were nevertheless spotted running the race. Another interesting sight was that Anne and Anne seem to have the same name AND the same speed. During the men’s race our chairman Casper managed to outrun all of his very strong competitors.
Overall, all Gauls raced very well! (see the results below).
During the 4x400m relay, a couple of Asterix teams participated. Ex-Gaul Sebastiaan came all the way from Luxemburg to participate in the 800m sprint (the one with starting blocks), where he finished in a respectable position.
After the event, all of the red and white tape and rubbish was removed from the nature reserve. Because the cleaning squad was too lazy to walk twice, they tried to transport as much material as possible in a single wheelbarrow run, which of course resulted in back injuries.
Meanwhile, all board members had a GMM of ZeuS, and the rest of the students made their way to our canteen for some food. ‘Peper en zout’ cooked a very nice homemade dinner for around 80 students. We ended this successful day partying at Stratumseind with the remaining students from all over the country who still had some energy left.
Long distance Men
| Name | Position | Time |
| Tom | 2 | 33:47 |
| Adomas | 10 | 35:19 |
| Haris | 12 | 35:58 |
| Willem | 16 | 36:42 |
| Dennis | 25 | 41:22 |
| Romke | 27 | 42:42 |
| Mart | 28 | 42:47 |
| Joost | 30 | 43:04 |
Long distance woman
| Name | Position | Time |
| Carmen | 3 | 27:05 |
| Henriëtte | 12 | 31:44 |
| Vera | 18 | 34:02 |
Short distance men
| Name | Position | Time |
| Casper | 1 | 8:20 |
| Wim | 10 | 9:24 |
| Niek | 12 | 9:38 |
| Jasper | 15 | 9:48 |
| Marvin | 20 | 10:00 |
| Stefan | 36 | 11:20 |
| Domingos | 39 | 11:43 |
| Michiel | 45 | 14:23 |
Short distance woman
| Name | Position | Time |
| Hannah | 9 | 11:09 |
| Anne van de Meulengraaf | 11 | 11:44 |
| Anne Jonker | 12 | 11:45 |
| Sophie | 21 | 14:01 |