Athlete of the Month: Casper van der Putten

Normally we see this smiling runner make endless laps on the track, but due to Covid19 we have to admire him online. Every Thursday Casper gives an online core session via Skype, even when he has bruised ribs! During one of his many training sessions he tried to jump over a hurdle and ended up hugging it instead. But it gave him a cool new nickname: the hurdle slayer and made him athlete of the month!

Casper is a member of Asterix since 2017 and sat on two boards and many committees in that short period of time. But Casper has running in his DNA because before he joined our purple heaven, he was a member for Eindhoven Atletiek for twelve years. He says he should have joint us much sooner and we agree of course. His longest distance non-stop was the marathon in Eindhoven. He was actually a pacemaker, but after 25km he decided to finish the race to show the flag of Asterix. (<3) After two years of board meetings and a lot of dedication, Casper enjoys a little bit of free time. When we don’t see him racing through Eindhoven on his bike for Deliveroo, he likes to bake pancakes. Not just any pancakes… No vegan pancakes, preferably in the middle of the night.

But let’s take a closer look at the career of our very own hurdle slayer. “The highlight was winning the 5000 meter at the Dutch Championships under twenty in 2013. This was especially a cool experience since I raced in front of a home audience and no one (including myself) expected that I would come even close to the podium. After the race I had a few years without really progressing much and I slowly started to lose interest in races. Until I became a member of Asterix. Since I have been running in the purple singlet, I have enjoyed the trainings and competitions. And I think it’s incredibly cool that since then I have been able to run three NK finals in the purple singlet. Despite that I never was really serious about my achievements, I just try to enjoy the sport.”

And besides enjoying the sport, Casper has another goal for this year. He wants to try to get the club record on the 3000m steeplechase and compete at the Dutch championships.

As a last question, because it is so close to Valentine’s day, we asked Casper who his secret crush is. The answer was ofcourse: Jelle! Although he has a girlfriend, this bromance will always come first!

By: Annelies Becker