Van Zetten extends Zeeuws-Vlaanderen Marathon title in course record

With the wind at our back, things went very fast from the start in Hulst. A leading group of four formed with a striking name: Huub van Noorden was not on the initial list of participants and only registered at the last minute. De Zeeuw showed up straight away, but he didn’t last long. After a few kilometres, Van Noorden had to let the leading group pass. It also went too fast for Zaandam’s Jeroen Kramer, leaving Van Zetten and Van der Lugt in the lead.

This immediately ended the game. The leading duo moved further and further away from Kramer and Van Noorden and it became clear early on that the winner should be sought in this pair. Halfway through, the gap between the first and the first pursuers was already more than two minutes. Axel decided after about 25 kilometers of racing. Van der Lugt had to let Van Zetten go and quickly gave up a lot of time. At thirty kilometers, the gap was already over a minute and Van Zetten was able to march to victory without being threatened.

In the final kilometers, the only question was whether Van Zetten could beat Sébastièn Schletterer’s eight-year-old course record. Wind in the back, the South Hollander succeeded brilliantly. His time of 2:24.48 was almost half a minute faster than the previous best time from 2014. Kramer was third behind Van Zetten and Van der Lugt. Van Noorden had to pay for his fast start in the second part and was overtaken by d’Hont as the best Zeeuw. The Zeeuws-Vlaming finished in 2:46.17′.

Listen below to the final part of the race and the reaction of Van Zetten, who responded to his course record immediately after the race. “I saw it. I didn’t dare think about it until 42 kilometers away, then I thought: just a little more.”