Dutch 10km record-holder aiming to make an impact at the World Championships in Budapest
Diane van Es is aiming to translate her meteoric rise on the roads to the track at next month’s World Championships [August 19-27].
The Dutch 24-year-old, who is an ASICS athlete, will take on the 10,000m in Budapest and aim to continue her spectacular season.
Back in February, Van Es took 12 seconds off Lornah Kiplagat’s 19-year-old Dutch 10km record of 30:41, running an astonishing 30:29 in Schoorl.
What was even more impressive however was that it was the fifth fastest 10km time by a European female in history and also put her fourth on the European all-time list.
The only three women from the continent who have gone faster than Van Es over the distance are Lonah Salpeter, Eilish McColgan and Paula Radcliffe. It’s not bad company.
Diane van Es at Font Romeu (Albin Durand)
AW caught up with Van Es out at ASICS’s Chojo Camp Europe, the brand’s first European pro-athlete training centre in Font-Romeu, ahead of Budapest.
The camp allows athletes the chance to both relax and train at altitude in the Pyrenees and embodies ASICS’ slogan of a “sound mind in a sound body”.
“My personal best was about two and a half minutes slower (32:50) back then but until that point [Schoorl], I hadn’t done a serious 10km beforehand,” Van Es tells AW,” reflecting on her Dutch 10km record. “I knew I could get a lot faster and I was in perfect shape. How quick I actually went though was a surprise.
“I got a lot of messages from people congratulating me. A lot of them didn’t actually believe the time and they thought it was 31:29!
“It’s really amazing to be in that position on the all-time list and to be just a couple of seconds behind Paula Radcliffe because when I was younger I used to look up to her as she was so much faster than everyone else and her times were just amazing”
The fact that Van Es is only eight seconds and 10 seconds behind Radcliffe and McColgan’s respective personal 10km bests shows how far the Dutch athlete has come.
Performing well in the 10,000m at next month’s World Championships is now the main goal.
Van Es has already lowered her personal best in the distance to 31:02.24 – a time she ran back in May at the Sound Running Track Fest meet in Los Angeles – and she wants to make an impression once again.
That time puts her fourth on the Dutch 10,000m all-time list. Sifan Hassan is top of that and Van Es is inspired…
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