Florent Caelen (born 1 March 1989) is a Belgian long-distance runner. He finished 44th in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
 Caelen at the 2016 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 March 1989 (age 35) |
| Height | 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)[1] |
| Weight | 54 kg (119 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | Marathon |
| Coached by | Henri Salavarda[2] |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best | 2:12:51 (2015)[3] |
Personal life edit
Caelen speaks French and English and has a degree in geography and geometrics from the University of Liège. He works as an application engineer for Hexagon Geospatial.[2]
Olympic qualification edit
With a personal best of 2 hours 12 minutes and 51 seconds (achieved at the 2015 Berlin Marathon), Caelen was the third and final Belgian runner to meet the requirements for qualification of the Belgian Olympic Committee on 30 April 2016, which was the deadline the Committee had communicated. However, in May 2016 they extended the deadline to 11 July 2016, and during that period Abdelhadi El Hachimi ran a marathon in 2 hours 10 minutes and 34 seconds, which meant that Caelen as the fourth fastest runner was no longer selected (Belgium only had the right to select three male marathon runners). Caelen contested this situation and won the court case, which meant that he became the third Belgian marathon runner in Rio instead of El Hachimi.[2][4]
References edit
- ^ Florent Caelen Archived 18 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. rio2016.com
- ^ a b c Florent Caelen. nbcolympics.com
- ^ Florent Caelen profile at IAAF
- ^ "Rechter beslist: marathonloper Florent Caelen naar Rio". Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). Belga. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.