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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Belgian | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 22 January 2005 | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
| Event | High jump | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | High jump: 1.93m (Kortrijk, 2023) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Merel Maes (born 22 January 2005) is a Belgian high jumper. She is a multiple-time national champion.
A keen footballer from the age of seven, she played as a full back for East Flemish provincial team Vrasene. She started the high jump in 2017. [1]
In August 2020 as a 15 year-old, she won the Belgian Athletics Championships title in the high jump for the first time, setting a Belgian U16 record of 1.79 metres. [2] [3]
In February 2021, whilst still 16 years-old, she won the high jump at the 2021 Belgian Indoor Athletics Championships with a personal best height of 1.91 metres. This was a 10cm improvement from her 1.81m best in 2020. [4] [5] She was the youngest competitor at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń in March. [6]
She was runner-up at the Belgian Athletics Championships in Brussels in June 2021, with a height of 1.88 metres. [7] She finished fifth at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi with a 1.84m clearance. [8]
She finished third at the Belgian Championships in Gentbrugge in June 2022, clearing 1.82 metres. [9] She won bronze at the 2022 European Athletics U18 Championships in Jerusalem with a height of 1.86 metres. [10] She finished fifth at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia with a height of 1.88 metres. [11]
In February 2023, she won the high jump at the 2023 Belgian Indoor Athletics Championships in Ghent. [12] She finished second in the Division I high jump competition at the 2023 European Athletics Team Championships in Silesia in June 2023, equalling her personal best of 1.92 metres and only losing on count back to Nawal Meniker of France. [13] In July 2023, she equaled the Belgian U20 record set by Sabrina De Leeuw in 1993, with a 1.93m clearance in Kortrijk. [14] She finished sixth at the 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem. [15] She won the Belgian national title again in July 2023 clearing a height of 1.80 metres in poor weather conditions in Bruges. [16]
In August 2023, she made her senior major global championship debut, at the age of 18 years-old, at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. She cleared a height of 1.89 metres without qualifying for the final. [17] [18]
She was selected for the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome in June 2024. [19]
Tia Hellebaut is a retired Belgian track and field athlete, as well as a chemist, who started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 metres both indoors and outdoors.
Antonietta Di Martino is a retired Italian high jumper. She currently holds the Italian national women's high jump record at 2.03 metres for outdoor events and 2.04 metres for indoor events. She also currently holds the women's all-time highest jump-differential, meaning she has jumped the highest more than her own height.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thiam is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title and only the second woman after Jackie Joyner-Kersee to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event.
Morgan Lake is a British high jumper. She won the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and placed fourth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Lake finished sixth in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and fourth in the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
Yuliya Andriyivna Levchenko or Yuliia Andriivna Levchenko (Ukrainian: Юлія Андріївна Левченко; pronounced[ˈjulijaˈleu̯tʃenko]; born 28 November 1997 is a Ukrainian high jumper. She won the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. Indoors at European level, Levchenko claimed bronze in 2017 and silver in 2019. She was the 2017 European Under-23 champion.
Miltiadis "Miltos" Tentoglou is a Greek long jump athlete, who is considered as one of the greatest long jumpers of all time, having won the first place in all major World and European championships, with a total of 10 gold medals.
Holly Mills is an English long jumper and heptathlete. She finished fourth both in the pentathlon at the 2022 World Indoor Championships and in the heptathlon at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Mills won bronze medals for the heptathlon at the 2021 European Under-23 Championships and for the long jump at the 2019 European U20 Championships.
Yaroslava Oleksiyivna Mahuchikh is a Ukrainian high jumper. She was the 2020 Summer Olympics bronze medalist, 2019 and 2022 World Championships silver medalist, 2023 World Championships gold medalist, 2022 World Indoor Championships gold medalist, and 2024 World Indoor Championships silver medalist.
Larissa Iapichino is an Italian long jumper who won silver medal at the 2023 European Indoor Championships.
Leyanis Pérez Hernández is a Cuban athlete who has won medals at the World Athletics Championships and World Athletics Indoor Championships in the triple jump.
Ruben Verheyden is a Belgian middle-distance runner, who specializes in the 1500 metres. He won the 1500m at the 2022 Belgian Athletics Championships, and the same event at the 2021 and 2022 Belgian Indoor Athletics Championships. He also won the 1500 m at the 2021 European Athletics U23 Championships.
Delphine Nkansa is a Belgian athlete. She was the Belgian national champion over 200m in 2022 and the European Under-23 champion over that same distance in 2023.
Mattia Furlani is an Italian high jumper and long jumper. He won gold medals in both events at the 2022 European Under-18 Championships. Furlani holds the European U20 indoor record for the long jump. In May 2023, at age 18, he leapt 8.44 m with wind assistance in the event, a mark better than the world U20 record and the longest in history by an U20 athlete in all conditions.
Melwin Lycke Holm is a Swedish high jumper and long jumper. He was the winner of the 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships, and he is the son of Olympic gold medallist Stefan Holm.
Lurdes Gloria Manuel is a Czech sprinter. In 2024, she became Czech national indoor champion over 200 metres and set a Eurorpean U20 indoor record over 300 metres.
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