Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Robert Lathouwers |
Nickname | - |
Born | Rotterdam, Netherlands | 8 July 1983
Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) |
Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) |
Updated on August 5, 2008 |
Robert Lathouwers (born 8 July 1983 in Rotterdam) is a former Dutch athlete who mainly focused on the 400 and 800 metres.
Lathouwers was born and raised in Rotterdam and has a sister who is two years older than he is named Maura. [1] He started in athletics at the age of six, doing all different kinds of disciplines in the sport. He was a multi talented athlete and he won several heptathlon and decathlon meetings and was also invited to represent the Netherlands in international nation meetings. [1] At the age of 17 he decided to fully concentrate himself at the sport and started training much more intensively. [1] As the 400 metres was his best discipline in the decathlon he decided to focus on that and soon afterward he canceled his decathlon aspirations. [1]
After a period of quiet and effective training sessions he broke his personal record to 48.55 seconds, which was the 3rd time ever run by a B-junior in the Netherlands. [1] In his first year as an A-junior he ran 47.14 seconds and he qualified himself for the 2001 European Junior Championships in Italy. [1] The following year he suffered from several injuries, but still managed to break his personal record again to a time of 47.11 seconds. [1] Due to this effort he qualified for the World Junior Championships in Jamaica where he finished in the 9th position. [1] He represented the Netherlands also at the European Cup meeting in Sevilla where he participated in the 4 x 400 metres relay in which his team became third in a time of 3:06.23. [1]
On 15 February 2003 he won his first national senior title at the Dutch Indoor Championships. [1] Later that year during the Golden Spike meeting in Leiden he ran 46.78 and qualified himself for the European under-23 Championships in Bydgoszcz. [1] Together with his team mates Jordy Hindriks, Peter Wolters and Jelle Heisen he also qualified for the 4 x 400 metres relay, running 3:08.95. [1] At the European Championships Hindriks was replaced by Youssef el Rhalfioui and together they ran to a fourth position in a new Dutch under-23 record of 3:06.61. [1] In 2005 he won his second indoor 400 metres title and later during the year he won his first outdoor title. [1] Alongside Daniël Ward, Daniël de Wild and Sjors Kampen he also won a bronze medal at the European Under-23 Championships in Erfurt. [1]
Lathouwers had a disappointing year in 2006 as he suffered from injuries and was almost drowned during swimming at sea. [1] In December 2006 he was asked by Haag Atletiek to substitute one of their runners at the 800 metres. Lathouwers was sceptical about the distance however, as he never ran races longer than 400 metres. [1] He eventually gave it a try and he was the first to cross the finish line in 1:51.57. [1] Lathouwers made a huge change in his career and decided to focus on the 800 metres from then on and during a training session in South Africa he ran the 800 metres in 1:47.81. [1] In January 2008 he ran another race in South Africa in 1:46.70 and February during his first ever indoor 800 metres he ran 1:48.31, which was enough to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in Sevilla. [1] A week later he became Dutch National Indoor Champion over 800 metres and during the outdoor season he also took this Dutch national title. [1] At the World Championships he won his serie in the first round, which qualified him straight for the semi-finals. [1] In these semi finals he finished third behind Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Abubaker Kaki Khamis and was eliminated. [1] However, his time of 1:48.27 was another personal best. [1] During the FBK Games in Hengelo he won the 800 metres impressively in 1:45.80, beating many World class runners, inclusive World Champion Alfred Yego. [1] His next goal was to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics and on 13 July in Athens his 1:45.30 was only 0.05 short to break the Olympic limit. [1] Then, on 29 July in Monaco, he secured his Olympic debut by running an impressive 1:44.75 during the Super Grand-Prix meeting there. [1] He was disqualified from the 800m heats in the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona.
Yuriy Mikhailovich Borzakovskiy is a Russian middle-distance runner specializing in the 800 metres.
Kerron Stephon Clement is a Trinidadian-born American track and field athlete who competes in the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter sprint. He held the indoor world record in the 400-meter sprint, having broken Michael Johnson's mark in 2005.
Dmitrijs Miļkevičs is a former Latvian track athlete who competed in 400 metres and 800 metres.
Tetiana Hryhorivna Petlyuk or Tetiana Hryhorivna Petliuk is a Ukrainian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. Her personal best time is 1:57.34 minutes, achieved in June 2006 in Kyiv. She has an indoor best of 1:58.67 minutes, set in 2007.
Jennifer Brenda "Jenny" Meadows is a retired British athlete. Her main event was the 800 metres, although she previously competed also over the 400 metres. She won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships, and a silver at the 2010 World Indoor Championships. At the European Athletics Championships, Meadows took silver outdoors in 2010 and gold indoors in 2011. She also had some international success as part of the Great Britain women's 4 x 400 metres relay squad.
Virgil Spier is a Dutch athlete who started at the decathlon, but who is currently active mainly as a sprinter and a hurdler.
Laurien Hoos is a Dutch former athlete mainly active at the heptathlon and as a hurdler.
Michael Bingham is an American-born British 400 metres track and field athlete. The silver medalist in the individual 400 metres at the 2010 European Championships, his most notable successes came as a long-time member of the Great Britain and England 4 x 400 metre relay squads. A European indoor, European outdoor and Commonwealth Games champion in the long relay, Bingham won medals at every major indoor and outdoor championships available to him, winning Olympic bronze in 2008, World outdoor silver and World indoor silver (twice), in addition to the gold medals at European and Commonwealth Games level.
Adam Piotr Kszczot is a retired Polish middle-distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres. His achievements include silver medals at the 2015 and 2017 World Championships in Athletics, gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships as well as silver and bronze at the 2014 and 2010 World Indoor Championships respectively. Kszczot won three gold medals in the 800 m at both the European Outdoor and Indoor Championships. He twice competed at the Olympic Games, in 2012 and 2016, narrowly missing the final on both occasions.
Evan Reese Jager is an American middle- and long-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. In his speciality event, he won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze at the 2017 World Championships. Jager is the current NACAC area record holder in the event with a time of 8:00.45. He is sponsored by Nike and is coached by Jerry Schumacher of the Bowerman Track Club.
Brian Mariano is a Curaçaoan sprinter who specializes in the 100 and 200 metres and starts for the Netherlands, formerly for Netherlands Antilles until October 1, 2010. He finished fourth-fastest in the men's 60 metres heats at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, but was disqualified in the semifinals. He won a bronze medal in the 4x100 metres relay at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez alongside Prince Kwidama, Curtis Cock and Churandy Martina.
Kevin Mayer is a French athlete specialising in decathlon and indoor heptathlon. He is two-time world champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and the world record holder in the decathlon since 2018. He is also a world and three-time European champion in heptathlon.
Stella Jongmans is a retired Dutch athlete who specialised in the 800 metres. She won the gold at the 1995 Summer Universiade and silver at the 1996 European Indoor Championships. In addition, she represented The Netherlands at two Olympic Games, in 1992 and 1996.
Thijmen Kupers is a Dutch middle-distance runner who specialises in the 800 metres.
Guy Learmonth is a Scottish and Great British athlete specialising in the 800 metres. His PB currently stands as 1:44.73 and he is the 3rd fastest Scottish 800m athlete of all time. Learmonth reached the final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 European Indoor Championships, finishing 6th in both. He was named the GB&NI captain for the European Indoor Championships in 2019. Guy has broken the Scottish 800m Junior Record 9 times and holds the English AAA U20 Indoor & BUCS Championship records.
Nadine Visser is a Dutch track and field athlete who competed in the combined events until 2017 and specialises in short hurdling since 2018.
Donavan Brazier is an American middle-distance runner. He holds the American junior record in the men's 800 meters and won the gold medal at the 2019 World Championships. With a time of 1:42.34, he was the American national and NACAC area record holder in the event from 2019 until 2024, when Marco Arop and Bryce Hoppel ran 1:41.20 and 1:41.67 to break the NACAC record and American record respectively.
Femke Bol is a Dutch track and field athlete who competes in hurdling and sprinting. She specialises in the 400 metres hurdles, where she is the 2023 World Champion, and in the 400 metres, where she is the 2024 World Indoor Champion and the short track world record holder. In the 4 × 400 metres relay, she is the 2023 World Champion and the 2024 World Indoor Champion with the Dutch women's team and the 2024 Olympic Champion with the Dutch mixed team.
Lieke Klaver is a Dutch track and field athlete who competes in sprinting. She specializes in the 200 metres and in the 400 metres. In the 4 × 400 metres relay, she is the 2023 World Champion and the 2024 World Indoor Champion with the Dutch women's team and the 2024 Olympic Champion with the Dutch mixed team.
Eliott Crestan is a Belgian middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres. In this disciplone, he won bronze medals at the 2018 World U20 Championships and the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. In 2024, he broke Ivo Van Damme's 800 metres national record that had stood for 48 years with a time of 1:42.43. He participated in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, reaching the semi-final stage in both. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in the men's 800 meters semifinals, Crestan ran the fastest non-final qualifying time in Olympic history of 1:43.72.