 Elien Vekemans at the 2023 World Championships. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 30 April 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Pole vault | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best | Pole vault: 4.73m (2025) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Elien Vekemans (born 30 April 2001) is a Belgian pole vaulter. In 2024, she became the national record holder in the event. [1]
In 2018, she set a junior Belgian record of 4.25 metres competing in Oordegem. She won the bronze medal at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships in Borås. Later that month she set a new junior Belgian record of 4.26 metres whilst competing in Amiens. [2]
In June 2023, she finished fourth competing for Belgium at the 2023 European Athletics Team Championships First Division in Silesia with a height of 4.50 metres. [3] She won the silver medal at the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland behind Frenchwoman Marie-Julie Bonnin. [4] [5] She competed at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, placing 29th in qualifying with a 4.35 metres clearance but not reaching the final. [6]
In July 2024, Vekemans broke the Belgian outdoor record with a 4.52 metres clearance at the Flanders Cup in Leuven, but was still 1 cm short of the overall Belgian record of Fanny Smets 4.53 metres clearance from 2021. [7] In Krk, Croatia on 30 August 2024 she set a new national record height of 4.54 metres. [8]
In Rouen on 25 January 2025, she increased her national record with a 4.56 metres clearance. [9] She competed at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and progressed to the final finishing in the top-eight. [10] In June 2025, she twice bettered the national record, clearing 4.61 metres at the Paavo Nurmi Games leg of the 2025 World Athletics Continental Tour in Turku, Finland [11] and then 4.65 metres at the 2025 2nd Division European Athletics Team Championships in Maribor, Slovenia. [12] She cleared 4.60 metres to win gold at the 2025 Summer World University Games in Germany. [13]
She was selected for the Belgian team for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. [14]
Her brother Daan Vekemans is a professional footballer. Their parents emigrated to Austria in 2021 to open a hotel. She studied in the United States at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Arkansas. [15] She later returned to study bioengineering at KU Leuven the city of Leuven located in the province of Flemish Brabant, Flemish Region, Belgium after a period of ill health. [16]
World University Games champions in women's pole vault | |
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