Hilda Kibet: from blankets to Brussels gold – European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS

Hilda Kibet won the 2008 SPAR European Cross Country Championships senior women's title and there was no disguising the Dutch woman's delight at taking her first major title.

She crossed the line with a broad smile on her face and the Dutch flag draped around her shoulders, a wonderful climax to a great day for the contingent from the hosts' neighbours, who also triumphed in the Under 23 women's race thanks to Susan Kuijken.

"This medal is very special to me. It is my first big prize and now I want to go and get more. I went to Brussels without any specific expectation of winning although I was aiming for the podium," said the 27-year-old physiotherapist, who lives in the coastal town of Castricum, just north of Amsterdam.

"I was also relieved when I got across the line and saw for certain it was a Dutch flag as I'd been unintentionally holding it upside down. Someone gave it to me in the home straight and I just assumed that it was the Dutch flag but I then glanced back and saw the blue stripe on top rather than the red stripe. I was worried a few metres from the line it might be another country's flag. I'd have never lived that down," joked Kibet, after easing off over the final few hundred metres but still winning by nine seconds from Portugal's Jessica Augusto.

Kibet was spurred by a message from her fellow Dutchwoman and 2005 SPAR European Cross Country Championships gold medallist Lornah Kiplagat, who is actually her aunt.

"We are each other's biggest fans and when I saw her last week, she said to me, 'You have to win in Brussels'," revealed Kibet.

Her success in the Belgian capital got her reminiscing about when she got her first prize from running which Kibet earned in a race at the end of her school days in her native Kenya back in 2000.

"It was a blanket. The first 10 got prizes and I finished 10th. I was so proud of it as it was gigantic. It was my first real prize and, after all, getting recognition for your running is what athletics is all about," beamed Kibet.

Kibet's prowess at running, although she was by no means as prodigious as many other Kenyan teenagers as she had concentrated on her academic work while at school, lead to her life changing significantly a few months after her modest but hugely motivating first reward from the sport.

She met the Dutch international marathon runner Hugo van den Broek while he was on a training trip to Kenya and they fell in love.

The pair have now been together for seven years and, judging from the way she was cheering van den Broek on during the recent Amsterdam Marathon and the reception she gave him at the finish of the race – held the day after the European Athletics Convention came to an end on October 19 – the bond is stronger than ever.

Van den Broek, who can boast of a best of 2:12:08 for the classic distance, has also worn the famous orange vest on the continental stage and finished 22nd in the 2006 European Athletics Championships marathon.

After moving to The Netherlands in 2001 to join van den Broek, Kibet initially used her head and hands to rather than her legs to make her way in the world and acquired a physiotherapy degree, which she still believes will be utilised to great effect when her running career comes to an end.

"I only stopped studying last year when I finally qualified so it has only been in the last 18 months that I have been focussing full time on running," added Kibet.

In 2008, with greater freedom to concentrate on athletics, she has made huge strides forward and set personal best times over 10,000m on the track and the road as well as coming home as the leading European, in fifth place, in the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March. "But finishing 15th in the Olympics 10,000m was a disappointment so winning a European title has made up for that."

Kibet's performances and comfort at racing in testing conditions also means that she has no qualms about trying to defend her SPAR European Country Championships title in Dublin next year.

"I like the mud so I definitely intend to go to Dublin and I'm accustomed to the cold. After all, I'm Dutch. It's not sunny all the time where I live," joked Kibet.   

European Athletics (EAA)