| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 7 February 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Long-distance running | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 1500m: 3:50.77 (Brussels, 2025) 3000m: 7:47.02 (Leuven, 2025) 5000m: 13:31.12 NU20R (Oslo, 2025) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Willem Renders (born 7 February 2007) is a Belgian long-distance and cross country runner. [1]
From West Flanders, Renders started running in De Haan and later trained as a member of AV Jabbeke before joining Excelsior in Brussels. [2]
Renders set a 5000 metres personal best of 13:55.09 in May 2025 at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. [3] He won the gold medal over 5000 metres at the 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, finishing ahead of Sweden's Karl Ottfalk in August 2025. [4] Later that month, he set a new national under-20 record over that distance, running 13:31.12 in Oslo, Norway, breaking the previous best by Jean-Pierre Ndayisengha which had stood since 1981. [5]
Renders suffered a broken elbow from a fall in the second half of 2025. [6] Despite that, he recovered to win the men's under-20 race at the Belgian Cross Country Championships in November 2025. [7] Renders subsequently won the gold medal for Belgium in the men's under-20 race at the 2025 European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, also leading Belgium to the team gold. He become the first Belgian winner since Jeroen D'hoedt in 2009. [8]
