Anouk Vetter

Anouk Vetter (Dutch pronunciation: [aːˈnuk ˈvɛtər]; born 4 February 1993) is a Dutch athlete who specialises in the heptathlon. She holds the Dutch record in heptathlon of 6636 points. In 2016, she won a gold medal at the heptathlon at the 2016 European Athletics Championships.[4]

Anouk Vetter

Anouk Vetter in 2014
Personal information
Nationality	Dutch
Born	(1993-02-04) 4 February 1993 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight	62 kg (137 lb)[1]
Website	www.anoukvetter.nl
Sport
Country	Netherlands
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Heptathlon[2]
Club	AV Sprint[3]
Medal record World Championships 2017 London Heptathlon European Championships 2016 Amsterdam Heptathlon

Early life

Anouk Vetter was on born 4 February 1993 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.[3] Anouk was exposed to athletics at a very young age. Her father, Ronald Vetter, is a long-standing athletics coach and her mother, Gerda Vetter-Blokziel a two-time Dutch javelin champion. “I grew up on the track, running around from the age of four and five playing on the high jump mat,” she recalls.[5]

Career

Vetter at the 2016 European Championships, where she won a gold medal at the heptathlon

Her passion became the heptathlon. However, her frail body was susceptible to injury. She failed to finish a heptathlon at either the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships, 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics and the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships. After replacing her coach in 2012 with her father, he decreased her training to 80 per cent compared to the other women in the combined event group to protect her fragile body.[5] She won the Multistars Firenze Trofeo Zerneri Acciai, the opening meeting of the 2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge with 5872 points.[6]

Her breakthrough came in 2014 when she improved her previous personal best by a massive 444 points to 6316 points at that year's prestigious Hypo Meeting in Gotzis (Austria) to place 9th.[7] "Gotzis was really special," she remembered. "It is always fantastic to compete there because the crowd is so close to the track."[7] Later that year she finished 7th at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich.[5]

In 2015 she finished 6th at that in Gotzis with a new personal best with 6458 points,[8] and won the heptathlon at the Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen (Germany).[5][9] Despite an injury, Vetter also competed in the heptathlon event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China, where she reached the 12th place with 6267 points.[5] “Bearing in mind I didn’t think I could even start the competition, mentally it was a really big step for me,” she reflected later.[5]

She started the 2016 season with an 8th place in Gotzis. In July 2016, she won a surprise victory at the 2016 European Athletics Championships heptathlon in her home town Amsterdam, with a score of 6626 points, an improvement of the national record of Dafne Schippers.[4][10] "To win that European title was amazing," she remembered. "Suddenly I was out of the shadow of the big girls."[5] At the 2016 Summer Olympics, however, she finished on a disappointing 10th place.[11]

She started the 2017 outdoor season with a 7th place in Gotzis.[12] In August 2017, she set a new national heptathlon record of 6636 points at the World Championships in London, where she won the bronze medal, behind 2016 Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam (gold) and Carolin Schäfer (silver).[13] She concluded the season with a win at the heptathlon at the Décastar in Talence (France).[14] For the second year in a row she finished 2nd in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.[15]

At the 2018 Hypo Meeting in Gotzis she finished 4th behind Nafissatou Thiam, Yorgelis Rodriguez and Erica Bougard.[16]

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing the  Netherlands
2011	European Junior Championships	Tallinn, Estonia	–	Heptathlon	DNF
2012	World Junior Championships	Barcelona, Spain	–	Heptathlon	DNF
2013	Multistars	Florence, Italy	1st	Heptathlon	5872 pts
	European U23 Championships	Tampere, Finland	–	Heptathlon	DNF
2014	Hypo Meeting	Gotzis, Austria	9th	Heptathlon	6316 pts
	European Championships	Zürich, Switzerland	7th	Heptathlon	6281 pts
2015	European Indoor Championships	Prague, Czech Republic	8th	Pentathlon	4548 pts
	Hypo Meeting	Gotzis, Austria	6th	Heptathlon	6458 pts
	Mehrkampf-Meeting	Ratingen, Germany	1st	Heptathlon	6387 pts
	World Championships	Beijing, China	12th	Heptathlon	6267 pts
2016	Hypo Meeting	Gotzis, Austria	8th	Heptathlon	6282 pts
	European Championships	Amsterdam, Netherlands	1st	Heptathlon	6626 pts (NR)
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	10th	Heptathlon	6394 pts
2017	Hypo Meeting	Gotzis, Austria	7th	Heptathlon	6497 pts
	World Championships	London, United Kingdom	3rd	Heptathlon	6636 pts (NR)
	Décastar	Talence, France	1st	Heptathlon	6363 pts
2018	Hypo Meeting	Gotzis, Austria	4th	Heptathlon	6428 pts
	European Championships	Berlin, Germany	5th	Heptathlon	6414 pts
2019	European Indoor Championships	Glasgow, United Kingdom	–	Pentathlon	DNF
	World Championships	Doha, Qatar	–	Heptathlon	DNF

Personal bests

Event	Result	Venue	Date	Records	Notes
100 metres	11.63 s (wind +0.7)	Leiden	13 June 2015		[2]
200 metres	23.70 s (wind +1.0)	Mösle Stadium, Götzis	28 May 2016		[2]
800 metres	2:17.71 min	Olympic Stadium, Rio de Janeiro	13 August 2016		[2]
60 metres hurdles	8.25 s	Omnisport, Apeldoorn	28 februari 2016		[2]
100 metres hurdles	13.29 s (wind -0.7)	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam	8 July 2016		[2]
High jump	1.81 m	Tampere	13 July 2013		[2]
Long jump	6.34 m (wind +0.3)	Hoorn	16 May 2015		[2]
Shot put	16.00 m	Lisse	13 May 2017		[2]
Javelin throw	58.41 m	Olympic Stadium, London	6 August 2017		[2]
Pentathlon	4548 points	O2 Arena, Prague	6 March 2015		[2]
Heptathlon	6636 points	Olympic Stadium, London	6 August 2017	National record	[2][13]

References

1. Anouk Vetter, Eurosport. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
2. "Anouk Vetter Athlete Profile", IAAF, 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
3. (in Dutch) Anouk Vetter, Atletiek.nl. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
4. Vetter betters Schippers with third Dutch gold of the Championships, European Athletics, 9 July 2016
5. Patience reaps dividends in Vetter's rise through the heptathlon ranks, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 19 December 2017
6. Krauchanka and Vetter triumph in Florence – IAAF Combined Events Challenge, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 3 May 2013
7. That moment when… Vetter broke through, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 7 October 2017
8. (in Dutch) Brons voor meerkampster Broersen in Götzis, NOS News, 31 May 2015
9. Schrader and Vetter take the honours in Ratingen, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 28 June 2015
10. Vetter claims European heptathlon title with Dutch record, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 9 July 2016
11. (in Dutch) Vetter tiende op zevenkamp, Team NL, 14 August 2016
12. IAAF Combined Events Challenge Gotzis, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 28 May 2017
13. (in Dutch) Mark van Driel, "WK-brons mét Nederlands puntenrecord voor zevenkamper Anouk Vetter", de Volkskrant, 6 August 2017
14. Vetter concludes season with heptathlon victory in Talence, European Athletics, 18 September 2017
15. Freimuth and Schäfer win 2017 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 20 September 2017
16. World leads for Thiam and Warner in Gotzis, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 27 May 2018

External links

• Anouk Vetter at World Athletics
• Anouk Vetter, homepage