Nienke Brinkman won a bronze medal in the marathon on Monday, during the European Athletics Championships in Munich. The athlete crossed the finish line in third place, with a time of 2.28.52. The European title went to the Polish Alekdandra Lisowska, silver went to Matea Parlov Kostro from Croatia. It is the first European Championship medal for a Dutch woman in the marathon.
Brinkman was part of the leading group throughout the race. Two kilometers before the finish, Lisowska launched the attack, after which Brinkman, Kostro and the German Mirjam Dattke battled for silver and bronze. With pain in her legs, Brinkman managed to be faster than Dattke.
The story of Brinkman (28) is special: she has only been running for two years and in April she ran a Dutch record in her second official marathon. With a time of 2.22.51, she broke the nineteen-year-old Dutch record of Lorna Kiplagat (2.23.43). When she moved to Switzerland three years ago for her PhD research in geophysics, she came into contact with athletics. There she joined a student running group and participated in trail runs. In Zurich she ran a marathon under 2.40 hours, after which she started training more seriously.
Also read this interview with Nienke Brinkman, suddenly a celebrity
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