Netherlands
2017

Four Medals, All of Them Women's

The Netherlands took 28 athletes to the London World Championships in August 2017 and came home with four medals — one gold, three bronze, fifteenth in the table. All four were won by women, and three athletes won them.

• GoldDafne Schippers — 200 m · 11 August22.05
• BronzeDafne Schippers — 100 m · 6 August10.96
• BronzeAnouk Vetter — Heptathlon · 6 August6636 pts · national record
• BronzeSifan Hassan — 5000 m · 13 August14:42.73

Dafne Schippers defended her 200 m title on 11 August in 22.05, three hundredths ahead of Marie-Josée Ta Lou, and had already taken bronze in the 100 m on 6 August in 10.96. That same evening Anouk Vetter finished the heptathlon third with 6636 points, a Dutch record, built on a 58.41 m javelin that moved her onto the podium; Nadine Visser was seventh in the same competition with a season's best 6370. Sifan Hassan closed the championships on 13 August with bronze in the 5000 m in 14:42.73, behind Hellen Obiri and Almaz Ayana, after finishing fifth in the 1500 m.

Underneath the podiums the week was thinner than the medal count suggests. Susan Krumins was fifth in the 10,000 m and eighth in the 5000 m; Visser was also seventh in the 100 m hurdles; the women's 4×100 m made the final and finished eighth in 43.07 after running 42.64 in the heats. The women's 4×400 m was disqualified in its heat for a takeover outside the zone. Eelco Sintnicolaas did not finish the decathlon, Nadine Broersen did not finish the heptathlon after tearing a hamstring in the long jump, and Churandy Martina, the national record holder at 100 m and 200 m, missed the championships injured. Indoors in March, at the European Championships in Belgrade, the whole team had come away with one medal: Liemarvin Bonevacia's bronze in the 400 m in 46.26, a national indoor record.

The Changing of the Guard

Nine years is long enough to see what a season was. Thirteen of the athletes in that London squad have since retired, from Tessa van Schagen in 2019 to Lisanne de Witte in July 2026 and Liemarvin Bonevacia a month later — he went out at the European Championships in Birmingham, running the heat of the 4×400 m that took bronze, the first European medal a Dutch men's long relay has won. Schippers stopped on 26 September 2023 with a chronic back problem and still holds the national 100 m and 200 m records she set in 2015. Vetter stopped in November 2025 at 32, saying the fire had gone, and still holds the heptathlon record — the 6867 she scored in Eugene in 2022, not the 6636 of London.

Of the records that were current that season, one is still in the same hands: Hassan's 8:30.76 for 3000 m indoors, run in Birmingham on 18 February 2017. Bonevacia's indoor 400 m went to Jonas Phijffers in February 2026, and Melissa Boekelman's shot record to Jessica Schilder, who has since pushed it out to 21.09 m. The three that had stood longest — the 400 m and 400 m hurdles from 1998, and Ellen van Langen's 800 m from her Olympic final in Barcelona in 1992 — all now belong to Femke Bol, who turned 17 during that 2017 season and was not yet a senior international. She took the 800 m mark twice in eight days in August 2026.

From this season · in the archiveAsics Netherlands Pro Elite Team 2017 Short PantsIts short-pant counterpart, all polyester, from the same team issue.50,00 €View piece →

The Year ASICS Chose Athletics

2017 is a hinge year for Dutch athletics kit, and the hinge is documented.

That federation relationship is the oldest of its kind in the country: ASICS Benelux has been the Atletiekunie's partner since 1 January 2006, renewed in 2013 and again since, supplying clothing, shoes and accessories for all national selections — and it is still the federation's main sponsor in September 2026, twenty years on. The national championships carry the name.

What the brand has never published is a description of the 2017 kit itself. There is no launch note, no colour story, no collection name. So we will not invent one: what we can say about this piece comes off its own label. Blue, white and orange; the long pant a 61% cotton and 39% polyester main cloth with a 97% cotton stretch insert, the short pant 100% polyester, both made in China, both worn by a pro athlete. Cotton in the main cloth places it firmly on the warm-up side of the wardrobe rather than the racing side — the layer our anatomy of track pants is about, and the half of a kit that almost never leaves the team channel. Reading a piece like this is a matter of label, contract year and country of manufacture, which is what our authentication guide sets out.

From this season · in the archiveAsics Netherlands Pro Elite Team 2017 Long PantsThe long pant of the 2017 Dutch selection — cotton-faced warm-up cloth with a stretch insert, blue, white and orange.70,00 €View piece →