Jan Vandendriessche retires from the IAU Executive Council
We would like to inform you that after more than 16 years of service for IAU Jan Vandendriessche decided to retire from his position as IAU director due to personal reasons. His decision will be effective as of November 1st 2020. We would like to use this opportunity and thanks Jan for his dedication and continuous support in the development of the ultrarunning.
Jan has been a cornerstone of the IAU for sixteen years. He has been intricately involved through some of the most challenging times navigating the sport over the years. He will be missed on the Council and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors. Nadeem Khan
Jan was a very successful athlete as well. He competed on “short“ distances with main focus on 100 km where he reaches fantastic personal best of 6:39:34 in 1996 during the well-known and established Nacht van Vlaanderen, Torhout, Belgium. He completed over 20, 100 km races (11 races sub-7 hours) and a number of other ultradistance events including 50 km (3:01:32), 50 miles (5:36:34) and 6H (89.68 km) in total almost 60 events. His debut in the IAU Championships was in 1995 when he participated in the IAU 100 km European Championship in Chavagnes-en-Palliers (7:11:00), France (see Wikipedia, Jan Vandendriessche). This was followed in Winschoten 1995 (EC100K-DNF) and May 1996 when he took part in the World Championships in Moscow (6:50:30). Finally from 1996 up to 2003 he took part of all IAU Championships at 100 km distance, except for 1999 when he ran Comrades (40th but after disqualification of three runners moved to 37th palce). Finally ran his last race, due to knee problems, in the WC100K in Taiwan, November 2003. The next move was his election to be part of the IAU organisation as a member of the IAU Executive Committee.
Jan joined the IAU Executive Committee at the elections in 2004 and over the last 16 years, he has held most of the portfolios on the committee. He has been Treasurer, Director of Competitions and Organisations and helped author a considerable number of recent guidelines. He has been a member of the Medical Committee since its initiation. He founded the IAU labelling system and indeed, this is the final portfolio that he is currently holding before he retires from the IAU Executive Committee.
Jan and I were both elected to a new IAU executive committee at the same time in 2004 and we have worked together since then. I have seen Jan bring a number of innovations to our sport with our guidelines and IAU labelling system and I will be sorry not to have him alongside anymore. Best wishes in your future endeavours. Hilary Walker
Jan teached me in my first years as a council member all the different aspects of our international ultra sport. Experienced as he was as runner, organisor and administrator. He had a wide view, a lot of thoughts and energy. Together we discussed a lot of things in our own Dutch language, especially about important decisions on the agenda. I regret he’s leaving. With a lot of respect for all his efforts I want to say ‘Thanks Jan’ and enjoy from now on family life. Liesbeth Jansen
Congratulations to Jan on his achivements and most important thank you for all you have brought to the sport.
IAU Council
November 1st, 2020
