A boring sports summer in perspective? Nothing is less true

Granted, the Tour de France and Wimbledon are in full swing, but other than that summer doesn’t look like much at first glance in terms of sport. After all, there are no Olympics or European Cups or Men’s World Cups. Should we then prepare for a boring sporting summer?

Absolutely not, say journalist Erik Dijkstra and former soccer star Leonne Stentler. Sports enthusiasts pure singing speak on a talk show renze which sporting events they are most looking forward to.

Turns out the sport is still alive: Wednesday night was 1 with Marco van Basten the most watched talk show. The soccer legend has pleaded for a change to the offside rule.

Erik Dijkstra at Renze about the sports summer

Dijkstra says he is looking forward to athlete Femke Bol. The World Athletics Championships will take place in Budapest, Hungary in August. Femke Bol is so talented. I actually think she’s Johan Cruijff wearing spikes,” the journalist explains. He makes the comparison with the cyclist Matthieu van der Poel. “He is also someone who exudes talent, who has something special and who transcends himself. The Volkskrant I think he wrote once: as if blown by the wind.

Bol hopes to become a 400m hurdles champion this summer. What’s special is that this time she wants to put fourteen steps between the obstacles instead of fifteen. She hopes to become a second and a half faster, but according to Dijkstra this is a risk. So very exciting. “I really like athletics because it’s very technical. At the highest level, everything revolves around this technique.

Leonne Stentler: ‘There is more positivity around the women’s team’

Leonne Stentler’s heart will of course beat fastest at the Women’s World Cup in Australia (Metro told him earlier about the Orange Lionesses). “It’s not a surprise, I think.” The Orange Lionesses will kick off against Portugal on July 23 at 09:30 (Dutch time). “Unfortunately, the Netherlands are no longer among the big favourites. There was a negative atmosphere around the team at the European Championships last year. It was bad, there was another coach. is really different this year.

For example, the famous football manager Andries Jonker has been appointed and a different, more attacking formation is played. “There is more positivity around it. But it will be very exciting, because we are in a group with the United States. It is a repeat of the 2019 World Cup final. Then the Orange women lost 2-0 against the American football players. “Painful,” Stentler calls this memory.

“The first woman who dared to train harder”

As a final tip to look forward to, Erik Dijkstra mentions cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten. “A personal favourite. It is in its last season. After forty years, there are about 88 in the cycling years, she is still the best.

Van Vleuten is currently working on the Giro d’Italia, which she is sure to win, according to Dijkstra. “Her secret is that she was the first woman to train much harder and dare to train than others. Fellow cyclists call her extraterrestrial, because she can train so hard. It was always a little off-putting. The best cyclist now is Demi Vollering, who was always afraid of Annemiek van Vleuten. I like this.”

You can return to Renze via RTL.

Special weather weekend ahead: from (tropically hot) heat to thunderstorms on Sunday