European Athletics (EAA) – News – Borlée brothers will compete for Belgium at Izmir First League

Belgium’s 2010 European Athletics Championships 400m gold medallist Kevin Borlée and his twin brother Jonathan, the fastest man in Europe last year over one lap of the track, have confirmed that they will compete for their country at this year’s European Team Championships First League meeting.

This year’s host for the First League will be the Turkish city of Izmir and it will be held on 18-19 June.

The pair will run the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay although it hasn’t been decided who will run which individual distance.

The brothers’ father and coach Jacques Borlée, speaking to the Belgian media, also outlined the rest of their programme for the coming season.

The trip to Izmir will be the only time that the pair will be seen together at the same meeting ahead of this summer’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, apart from at the European Athletics Premium Meeting on home soil in Heusden, the KBC Night of Athletics on 16 July.

Kevin also has five races over 400m in his schedule: at the Samsung Diamond League meetings in Eugene on June 4, New York on June 11 and Lausanne on June 30, followed by a race in Madrid on 9 July and then in London on 6 August.

Jonathan, who was faster than his brother in 2010 and clocked a European-leading 400m time of 44.71 in the European Athletics Championships semi-finals but unravelled when the medals were decided, will begin his outdoor season running 400m at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Rome on 26 May and then goes over 200m in Rabat, Morocco, before reverting to the longer distance again.

He will then run over 400m at the Samsung Diamond League meetings in Paris and Stockholm, which will be held on 8 July and 29 July respectively.

The pair and their father arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, last week for warm weather training and will stay there until mid-May.

Neither man contested the individual 400m at last month’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris but they won bronze medals – along with Antoine Gillet, Nils Duerinck – and set a national record of 3:06.57 when finishing third in the 4x400m relay.

In similar fashion, this time with assistance from Arnaud Destatte and Cedric Van Branteghem, they were half of the Belgian quartet that took the 4x400m bronze medals at the 2010 European Athletics Championships.
 
European Athletics (EAA) – News