IAAF World Indoor Championships: bronze for Belgian Tornados

IAAF World Indoor Championships: bronze for Belgian Tornados
Despite the pressure, the Belgian relay team came through yesterday.

The Belgian Tornados added a ninth medal to their overall medal tally: a bronze at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Sunday. This medal was snatched in the final metres by Kevin Borlée. He beamed, “I kept going until the very last minute.”

Starting in fourth position, the final relay runner overtook the Trinidadian, Lalonde Gordon, and got ahead of him...by one-hundredth of a second. Kevin said, “I started in fourth. I needed to plug the gap on the Trinidadian. I did not want to overtake him too soon. The race went so quickly.” Kevin went on, “He got off very quickly. I did not have much room for manoeuvre. I bridged the gap, and then I passed him at the very last minute.”

His brother Dylan started as the first relay runner. The youngest Borlée brother confided, “There was a lot of pressure on us.”

He pursued, “We had to run quickly, but pay attention at the same time. There were a lot of disqualifications over the 400-metre race. I was slightly stressed due to this. I did not want it to be my fault that we lost. I knew that the American, Fred Kerley, and the Pole, Karol Zalewski, had got off quickly. My aim was to stay in third place behind them. I left the Trinidadian, Deon Lendore, behind me until the end of my relay race. I got our team off to a good start. I am proud of the foursome.”

Kevin Borlée has competed in all twenty finals in which the Belgian Tornados have taken part. The Belgian relay team has currently clocked up three gold medals (the outdoor European Athletics Championships 2012 and 2016, and the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2015), two silver medals (the IAAF World Indoor Championships 2010, and the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2017) and four bronze medals (the outdoor European Athletics Championships 2010, the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2011, the IAAF World Relays 2015 and the IAAF World Indoor Championships 2018).


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