Tessenderlo is a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. It is where the three Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp meet at the front gate of the Averbode Abbey. The municipality Tessenderlo encompasses the villages of Tessenderlo proper, Schoot, Engsbergen, Hulst and Berg. On January 1, 2006, Tessenderlo had a total population of 16,811. The total area is 51.35 km2 which gives a population density of 327 inhabitants per km2. The name Tessenderlo means "(the open place in) the forest of the Taxandrians".
Carolina Evelyn Klüft is a retired Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon, pentathlon, long jump and triple jump. She was an Olympic Champion, having won the heptathlon title in 2004. She was also a three-time World heptathlon champion, World Indoor pentathlon champion, a two-time European heptathlon champion and a two-time European Indoor pentathlon champion. Klüft is the only athlete ever to win three consecutive world titles in the heptathlon. She was unbeaten in 22 heptathlon and pentathlon competitions from 2002 to 2007, her entire combined events career as a senior athlete, winning nine consecutive gold medals in major championships.
Kim Gevaert is a former sprinter and Olympic champion from Belgium.
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
The pentathlon or women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day. The distance or time for each event is converted to points via scoring tables, with the overall ranking determined by total points. Since 1949 the events have been sprint hurdling, high jump, shot put, long jump, and a flat race. The sprint hurdles distance was 80 m outdoors until 1969 and thereafter 100 m; in indoor pentathlon the distance is 60 m. The flat race was 200 m until 1976 and thereafter 800 m. In elite-level outdoor competition, the pentathlon was superseded in 1981 by the heptathlon, which has seven events, with both 200 m and 800 m, as well as the javelin throw. Pentathlon is still contested at school and masters level and indoors.
Blanka Vlašić is a Croatian former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump. She is a two-time world champion and double Olympic medallist who ranks as the joint third- highest female jumper of all time with her personal best of 2.08 m. She is the Croatian record holder in the event, and a former indoor world champion.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a British retired athlete, specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 World Indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is also a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.
Belgium sent 32 athletes to the 2006 European Athletics Championships, which is a very big delegation for Belgium, as they only once sent more athletes, 44 to the 1950 European Athletics Championships. The most important names were Kim Gevaert, Tia Hellebaut and Cédric Van Branteghem.
Laurien Hoos is a Dutch former athlete mainly active at the heptathlon and as a hurdler.
The final of the Women's High Jump event at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenborg, Sweden was held on August 11, 2006. Belgium's Tia Hellebaut won the competition setting a new championship and a national record. By winning Hellebaut gave Belgium its second gold medal at these championships after Kim Gevaert had already won the women's 100 metres event. Ten minutes after the high jump competition ended, Gevaert ran the final of the women's 200 metres and won a third gold medal for Belgium.
Koninklijke Rupel Boom FC is a Belgian association football club based in Boom, Antwerp province currently playing in the Belgian Division 2, the fourth tier of Belgian football. They play at the Gemeentelijk Parkstadion in Boom.
Jacques Borlée is a former Belgian athlete, and the father and coach of athletes Olivia Borlée, Kevin, Jonathan and Dylan Borlée. He was voted European Athletics Coach of the Year in 2011.
Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson is an English athlete. A multi-eventer, she is primarily known as both a heptathlete and an indoor pentathlete. In heptathlon she is a double world champion, double Commonwealth Games champion and an Olympic silver medallist. In indoor pentathlon, she is a world and double European champion.
Nadine Broersen is a Dutch track and field athlete, specializing in the heptathlon and high jump. She was the 2014 World Indoor pentathlon champion. Broersen competes for the track and field club AV Sprint in Breda.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is the first athlete with three multi-event gold medals at the Olympic Games, winning the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Her three individual Olympic golds in a row for a woman equals the record of Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland in the hammer and Faith Kipyegon in the 1500 metres Thiam is also the only Belgian athlete to successfully defend an Olympic title.
Ilona Bruzsenyák is a Hungarian former track and field athlete who competed in the women's pentathlon, long jump and 100 metres hurdles. She was the gold medallist in the long jump at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. Bruzsenyák represented her nation at the Summer Olympics in 1972 and 1976, competing in both long jump and pentathlon. She was a ten-time national champion at the Hungarian Athletics Championships.
Noor Vidts is a Belgian athlete competing in the combined events. She won the gold medal in the pentathlon at the 2022 and 2024 World Indoor Championships. Vidts won the bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, having placed fourth in the event at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. She earned silver and bronze for the pentathlon at the 2021 and 2023 European Indoor Championships respectively.
Emma Oosterwegel is a Dutch track and field athlete competing in the combined events. She won the bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Fleur Jong is a Dutch Paralympic athlete. She won the gold medal in the women's long jump T64 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan and the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France. As of September 2023, her world record in this event is 6.74 metres.
The 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held from 2 to 5 March 2023 at the Ataköy Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, the first time the event took place in this country although the venue did stage the 2012 World Indoor Championships for which this 7000-seater was specifically built. The four-day competition was held during the centenary year of the Republic of Turkey, and featured 13 men's and 13 women's athletics events over three morning and four afternoon sessions.
Antwerp 
