Participated in the Open Dutch Championships 2024 and had a great time. Scored a lot of personal bests and had a brilliant day with my friends.
The Open Dutch Unicycle Championships (NKE) once was my first unicycle-event ever. It is the event where I learned that you can do more on a unicycle than just cycle forward and backwards. This year was double special as I competed on behalf of my team Unicycle Forever / Miloco. These days I visit lots of events, but the NKE always feels like coming home.
Long distances are my favourite
NKE is a track-event with sprint-distances and 5 and 10Kms. And you can also participate in the slalom, slow and long jump. It’s also a great social event, as we are one big family of people in love with the unicycle. I didn’t really train for this year’s NKE besides my regular routine, but my focus for 2024 was a personal best on the 5 and 10Kms and to avoid crashing on the sprint-distances.
In the past I always crashed during the 50M one foot, 100M and 800M. It’s a challenge to deal with the energy-explosion. With a lot of focus I avoided that this year, even on the wet track. I even rode a personals best on all distances.
The long jump also went pretty okay despite the slippery track. Slow and slalom went bad, as I had too much of the 10Kms in my legs.
Really proud of my personal bests
That brings me to the long distances, my absolute favourite. Last year in the 11+ category F I finished 7th at 30:15, some 3 minutes behind position 6. This year I was again 7th, but in 27:50, only 15 seconds behind number 6. Real progress!
The 5 kilometers went also good. I improved from 19:47 last year to 19:07 this year and with my 5the place I was the fastest Dutch competitor.
But the best thing is always the fun with my friends. That was true for yesterday to as it was a truly amazing event.
In the Dutch media:
- The national newspaper AD was present and did a short interview with me.
- Regional TV did a cool repo on it with my friend Renske as talking head (video-link coming).
All photos by Circus Miloco. Thank you Jeroen!
MORE NKE?
- The official training day was fun!
- I hosted a workshop long jump during this year’s official training-event.
