Three Belgian relay teams set their sights on a new Belgian record on Saturday during the 47th edition of the KBC Night of Athletics. Numerous elite individual Belgian athletes will be in action as well, including Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck, Jonathan Sacoor, Pieter Sisk and Timothy Herman. The biggest international draw in Heusden-Zolder will be Olympic steeplechase champion Winfred Yavi. Athletics fans are invited to attend all the events in the pre-programme, main and evening programmes on Saturday free of charge.
Spectators at the atmospheric Stadion De Veen can look forward to an evening full of excitement and speed. As well as individual 100-metre races for men and women, the programme also features a triple 4×100-metre relay (men’s, women’s and mixed). The Belgian Falcons (men), the Belgian Rockets (women) and the Belgian Dragonflies (mixed) will all be competing with the goal to break the Belgian record.
The exact line-ups of the various relay teams have not yet been announced, but Rani Rosius, Delphine Nkansa, Rani Vincke, Emiel Botterman and Antoine Snyders are all certain to play a part.
Paulien Couckuyt, the 400-metre hurdles specialist, will take on a spectacular one-off 300-metre hurdles race, aiming to set a Belgian record over this unusual distance. Other Belgian standouts include Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck
Paulien Couckuyt, a specialist in the 400-metre hurdles, will be taking on a spectacular 300-metre hurdles race for the occasion, with the aim of setting a Belgian record at this unusual distance. Other Belgian standouts include Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck (who has already dipped below 13 seconds in the 100-metre hurdles nine times this year), Jonathan Sacoor (400 metres), Pieter Sisk (1,500 metres), Tibo De Smet (800 metres), Camille Laus (800 metres), Thomas Vanoppen (5,000 metres) and Elien Vekemans (pole vault).
Belgium’s top javelin thrower, Timothy Herman, will also be taking part in the KBC Night. Title partner KBC is sending the popular influencer and content creator Stien Edlund onto the field for a javelin-throwing taster session with Herman.
Winfred Yavi, the queen of the steeplechase, will also be making an appearance at the 47th KBC Night. The 26-year-old world-class athlete from Bahrain is the 2023 world champion and 2024 Olympic champion in the 3,000-metre steeplechase. Another international star in Heusden-Zolder is Rhasidat Adeleke. With a personal best of 49.07, the Irish athlete became European runner-up in the 400 metres in 2024. Later that year, she narrowly finished outside the medals at the Olympic Games by claiming fourth.
The 47th KBC Night’s main programme gets underway at 6:30pm and ends at around 9:45pm. But the action doesn’t stop there, as national 5,000-metre heats will continue past 11pm as part of the ‘night programme’. The pre-programme starts at 12:30pm and consists of 18 youth races in various categories. Admission is free all day and evening.
