Antwerp 10 Miles: Impressive performance by Hayden Wilde and Jana Van Lent

The Antwerp 10 Miles has been a staple on the road racing calendar in Belgium for decades.

The 39th edition of the Baloise Antwerp 10 Miles attracted a record number of 40,000 runners. 32,000 of them participated in the famous 10 miles (16 km), 5,500 in the Baloise Antwerp Short Run (6 km), and 2,500 children participated in the Persil Kids Run (1.5 km).

In the men's 10 miles, there was no beating the silver medalist from the last Olympic Games in Paris in triathlon. The 27-year-old Hayden Wilde from New Zealand outpaced all his competitors, winning with a stunning time of 47'34". The vice-Olympic champion finished 50 seconds ahead of Belgium's Amaury Paquet, who came in second, and Thomas De Bock (49'08"), who was tenth in the European Championship marathon two weeks ago, took bronze in Antwerp.

The strongest performance of the day came undoubtedly from the in-form athlete Jana Van Lent. After her impressive fifth place at the European Championship 10 kilometres two weeks ago, she proved her hunger for success was not yet satisfied in the streets of Antwerp. The 24-year-old Belgian ran an outstanding race, stopping the clock at 52'14". This time placed her just outside the overall top 10, combining men and women. Van Lent, in her debut at this distance, immediately set the fastest Belgian performance ever in the 10 miles. She dethroned Marleen Renders. Hanne Verbruggen impressively finished second in Antwerp, with her 53'50" being the third fastest Belgian performance ever. Charlotte Van Hese secured the third spot on the podium.

(Raul Stiens - Photo: ©Unsplash)