Our own U-13 athlete Anhais Ahrendt recently made the trans-Atlantic trip to Nederland to compete in 2 regional track meets! The trip was motivated by her goal of getting experience competing in Europe, and extending her Personal Bests – something that is currently not possible due to the bad conditions of the SDK track.
Here’s a report of her trip and performance…
1st Competition: Atledo Oktober Meeting 2026, in Dongen (near Tilburg); Sunday 11 Oct
After arriving and settling in rainy Amsterdam on Friday the 9th, Anhaïs did not have a lot of time to acclimate or rest before traveling south to Dongen on Sunday early morning. The weather conditions didn’t help matters – we were told that herfstweer only started the day we arrived – as the temperature barely hit 10C and the winds were gusting.
No matter, after thoroughly warming up, Anhais showed she could handle the conditions in the initial event, getting a 12.12 in the 80m, good enough for a 6th place finish. Then the challenge of battling the windy conditions for the subsequent jumping events, which she handled superbly. She earned a 1st place finish in both Long Jump events, and another 1st in the final event of the day, High Jump.
Training at Tempo
In the next week, Anhais was blessed to be able to train 2 times at the Tempo Atletiek Vereniging in Bussum. Thanks to the team there and the Lehmann family for helping to arrange this! The training sessions were great and it was amazing to be able to use the modern facilities there; sadly, quite a departure from those at SDK that are barely at the required safety levels. At Tempo, Anhais was able to fine-tune her mechanics and further acclimate to the weather – although the weather had ‘softened’ nicely by Thursday.
2nd Competition: CAV Energie Flex Meeting, in Barendrecht (near Rotterdam); Sunday 18 Oct
The decent weather didn’t hold through the weekend though, so by the time the CAV Energie event rolled around we had to deal with another brisk morning temperature – but this time accompanied by quite a bit of “motregen”. Not ideal! But again, Anhais adapted quickly, stayed warm, and competed admirably!
She shot out to a great time of 31.07 in her first ever 200m race, to earn a 1st place. She followed that up straight away with a 15.10 in the 100m, also good enough for another 1st place finish in her age group. So far so good!
Then the jump events, and once again she finished 1st in the Long Jump in her age group! The final event was the High Jump, and despite feeling the effects of a long day and the cold, she managed to nail a couple of tough jumps to earn another 1st place finish.
Great results overall, and a great feeling of accomplishment in the first events on European ground! The hunt for Personal Bests and records still is fully ‘on’, and hopefully Anhais will have further opportunities to reach her goals before the new year.
We’d like to thank the donors who helped to make this amazing trip possible: in Curacao, ACTS BV, the Flores-Klooster family, the Kastaneer family; the Copeland, Ward & Rucker families in the US; and the Ahrendt-Craenen family in Nederland. Your support is greatly appreciated, and Anhais herself will provide personal thanks and further updates in the near future.
