The Rotterdam Marathon traditionally starts in a beautiful way, and Frank Evenblij wants to reflect on that. Because it was the last time for Lee Towers to sing the praises of the runners at the start. After thirty years, the legendary opening of ‘the most beautiful’ comes to an end. And if there are two people who have a hard time saying goodbye to that, it’s Frank and Erik. “It’s an icon,” said Frank. “I really enjoy him standing there and saying ‘nice, isn’t he’ about himself.”
Abdi Nageeye may be capable of more than he ever thought
And it was certainly beautiful. Not just about the startnot just because the tradition surrounding the last runnerbut definitely to de finish van Abdi Nageeye. He won the marathon in a new Dutch record. “I always thought Abdi was sub-top, but I think he is a lot better,” says Erik.
According to Erik, Abdi Nageeye’s limit is further than he ever thought. “Maybe Abdi will be, I almost dare not say, the first to run under two hours.” Frank adds: “A marathon, you can’t do a few of them a year. I believe you can run about two marathons a year because otherwise it is too tough. Paris is coming up and he has done this one: he is a contender.”
Olympic Abdi?
In short: now the focus is on the marathon of the Olympic Games in Paris. In Tokyo the Nageeye saw them walk to silver, and at the same time, with kindness itself, helping his Belgian training buddy across the finish line to third place. Erik then thought: could there have been more in it, if he still had the energy for it? “Tom Dumoulin once said, ‘the time trial is a lot of energy and it must be completely empty at the end.’ (…) And yesterday he said, ‘it was like I was jogging’. If you’re talking about that amount of energy, then I think that Abdi should run under two hours!”
“I think Abdi is a contender for gold at the Paris marathon,” says Erik. “In Tokyo you thought, silver, perhaps the highlight of his career. Now I think, that guy might win gold!”
