Douwe Jorn Amels (born 16 September 1991) is a Dutch

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who specialises in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. He won the gold medal at the 2023 European Indoor Championships, becoming the first Dutchman ever to win gold in the event and the first high jump medallist at these championships since 1977. Amels claimed also gold at the 2013 European Under-23 Championships. He represented Netherlands at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. He is the joint Dutch indoor record holder for the high jump, and won almost 20 national titles (outdoors and indoors).

Career

Born in

Drachten Drachten () is a town in the northern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Smallingerland, Friesland. It had a population of around 45,186 in January 2017 and is the second largest town in the province of Friesland. History Begin ...

, Douwe Amels' family was interested in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

and joined Impala, a local club, to work with coach Hans-Jörg Thomaskamp.Douwe Amels
Atletiek. Retrieved on 2016-01-31.
. Gwangju2015. Retrieved on 2016-01-31. In 2010, he set a national junior record for the high jump and competed at the

World Junior Championships in Athletics The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the ye ...

held in

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. The ...

, Canada. His first senior national titles followed in 2011 and 2012, when he won both outdoor and indoor titles. Having reached the peak of senior national athletics, he remained in the age category competitions internationally, jumping at the 2011 European Under-23 Championships and then the 2013 European U23 Championships, winning the gold medal at the latter with a personal best jump of . Amels was selected to compete for the

Netherlands at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics Netherlands competed at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. A team of 23 athlete was announced to represent the country in the event. Dafne Schippers won with her bronze in the 2013 World Champ ...

, but at that competition he was some way off his new best, being eliminated in the qualifying rounds with a best jump of . He failed to improve upon his best in the 2014 and 2015 seasons (jumping 2.23 m and 2.24 m, respectively),Douwe Amels
IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-01-31. though he was also undertaking a degree in corporate law at the

Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist ...

during this period. Amels appeared for the Netherlands at the

2014 European Team Championships Super League These are the complete results of the 2014 European Team Championships Super League on 21 and 22 June 2014 in Braunschweig, Germany. As with the previous championships there were a couple of rules applying specifically to this competition, such as t ...

, placing ninth, and jumped in the qualifying round of the

2015 Summer Universiade ) , Nations participating = 143 , Athletes participating = 12,885 , Events = 272 in 21 sports , Opening ceremony = , Closing ceremony = , Officially opened by = Park Geun-hye , Athlete's Oath = Kim Seong-yeon and Kim Kuk-young , Judge's Oath = K ...

. He equalled his personal best of 2.28 m in Zoetermeer (NED) on 28 August 2019, qualifying for the 2019 World Championships in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

, Qatar, where he did not advance to the final. At the 2023 European Indoor Championships in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, the 31-year-old equalled

Wilbert Pennings Wilbert Bernard Roger Pennings (born 23 February 1975 in Alphen aan den Rijn) is a Dutch high jumper. He is a thirteen-time Dutch champion and holds the national indoor and outdoor records. Pennings became Dutch high jump champion for the first ...

' Dutch record of 2.31 m dating back to 2002 to claim the gold medal, the biggest success of his career up to that point. It was the first Dutch title in the men's high jump in history and the first high jump medal for the Netherlands in these championships since

Ruud Wielart Ruud and Rud are surnames of Norwegian origin. Both are also Norwegian place names of numerous farmsteads named Rud or Ruud from Old Norse ''ruð'' meaning clearing. Ruud is also a Dutch masculine given name meaning "famous wolf" although it is also ...

's bronze in 1977.

Statistics

International competitions

¹No mark in the final

National titles

Dutch Athletics Championships The Dutch Athletics Championships ( nl, Nederlandse kampioenschappen atletiek) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in the Neth ...

** High jump: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 *

Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships The Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships ( nl, Nederlandse kampioenschappen indooratletiek) is an annual indoor track and field competition organised by the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport ...

** High jump: 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

References

External links