2021 Night of Flanders

Night of Flanders 100K Belgian Championship 2021, Torhout, Belgium

The Night of Flanders has a great history in ultrarunning. The LOC organised the very first WC 100km-inofficial- in 1987, the IAU WC 100km in 1993, IAU EC 100km in 1998, IAU WC 100km 2002, IAU EC 100km in 2006, IAU EC 100km and IAU WC 100km in 2009.

Legendary names adorn the list of honour, oa Yiannis Kouros, Jean-Paul Praet, Domingo Catalan, Marta Vass, Konstantin Santalov, Edit Berces, Oleksandr Holovnytskyi, Valmir Nunes, Helena Crossan, Marija Vrajic, Yasukazu Miyasato, etc.

The start was on Sunday, June 20th at 09:00 on 5 km loop (WA-measurers grade B) and although it had rained a lot the days before, it remained dry almost the entire day, but with slightly too warm temperatures. The beautiful, fairly flat course of 5km was already partly the setting for the IAU WC 100km in 1993.

photo taken by Johan Heytens

There was a small but strong field at the start with Wouter Decock (100 km 6.33), Joris Beaumon (100 km 6.58), Jan Vandekerckhove (100 km 7.15), Bram van Rijswijk (100 km 7. 24), Stijn van Lokeren (6 hours 88 km), Stan De Vleminck (marathon 2.27) and in the women's field Adinda Vetsuypens (100 km treadmill 8.21) and Nele Baele (6 hours 70 km). 

photo taken by Johan Heytens

Wouter Decock immediately took the lead ahead of Joris Beaumon and Stijn van Lokeren. In the women's race, Adinda Vetsuypens and Nele Baele ran together for a few laps until Nele took a small lead on Adinda. Veerle Maréchal (Belgian 2018 Champion) had to withdraw because she had not recovered sufficiently after an illness. Halfway Wouter came through in 3h20min. Stijn van Lokeren, Jan Vandekerckhove and Stan Vleminck stopped the race. And so Wouter Decock seemed to be on his way to a 6th title. Given the lack of preparation (his first race after more than a year and a half), he only ran with the title in mind, and time became less important. With a time of 7:06:50 he took his 6th Belgian title. Sebastien Mahia came in 2nd and Matthew Bouckhuyt celebrated his comeback with a new PR and a 3rd place.

photo taken by Johan Heytens

photo taken by Johan Heytens

Among the ladies, Adinda also stopped and so Nele Baele ran to her first Belgian title in a time of 8:59:47. An Andries became 2nd. For both Nele and An it was their debut at the 100km.

On the 50km, Misha Declerck won his first ultra in 3:05:34 Misha ran a number of strong half marathons and made with this 50km a strong debut as ultra runner. Leonie Ton (Neth) won in a strong PR. Her time of 3:32:04 was not quite a World Record in the W45 category, but it was a European Record. Leonie had a tough time after 25 km, so she missed the record, but she did cut 14 minutes from her PR.

photo taken by André Mingneau

photo taken by Johan Heytens

100 km Overall Results

50 km Overall Results

André Mingneau

Bondscoach Belgian ultrarunners