Elly van Hulst

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Elisa ("Elly") Maria van Hulst (born June 9, 1959 in Culemborg, the Netherlands) is a former middle distance runner from the Netherlands, who competed for her native country at three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984.

As a former ballerina, Van Hulst began her athletics career at the age of eleven. She was trained by Theo Kersten in Leeuwarden, whom she later married. Van Hulst won a total of 68 Dutch national championships during her career. In 1989 she ran a world indoor record on the 3000 metres at the 1989 European Indoor Championships in Athletics. At the end of the year she was named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year for that performance.

Her first sport was jazz ballet. But because of her height this was not a big success. At age 11 she started athletics together with her older brother. She really enjoyed it and was already pretty good at it. When she was in high school, she moved from Maastricht to Leeuwarden. She was trained by Theo Kersten. Together they started working on a long term plan, which put her sports career into high gear. Although her trainer was 13 years older they got involved into a romantic relationship, and later got married.

Elly's career would last almost twenty years. In this time she became national champion 68 times, European champion three times, and world champion twice. On the 3000 meter indoor she held the world record for twelve years with a time of 8 minutes 33.82 seconds, which even today is a world class achievement. She participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

At the end of the 1980's Van Hulst showed that she was among the best athletes in the world. In 1988 she defeated Mary Decker, the favorite on the 3000 meter in Zurich. In 1989 she broke the world record in the World Championships Indoor in Budapest. That same year she was awarded Dutch sportswoman of the year.

In 1990 Van Hulst began having strange physical complaints and was tired frequently. Doctors were unable to find anything that caused her symptoms, and so she kept on running. Eventually Van Hulst could not participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona because she was in the hospital for medical tests. It was discovered that she had a serious viral infection, and had had it for two years.

As a result of the viral infection she got exercise-induced asthma. However, because her asthma was easily controlled, her career was apparently unaffected. Just before the European Championships in 1994 in Paris, she heard that one of the ingredients of her medication was on the list of banned substances. A permitted alternative was not effective. As a result she ended up in ninth place in Paris. Two years later, the ingredient in question was found to be harmless and was removed from the list of banned substances, but this change came too late for Van Hulst. She was not able to participate in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

During her successful years she trained in the Algarve in Portugal. She loved this place and later, when her career had ended, moved here. Nowadays she has a real estate business with her husband, Theo Kersten: Elly van Hulst Promotion LTD.

[edit] Results

European Championships

1984 - Gothenburg 1500 meter indoor Silver
1987 - Lieven 3000 meter indoor Silver
1988 - Budapest 3000 meter indoor Gold
1989 - The Hague 3000 meter indoor Gold

Worldchampionships

1985 - Paris 1500 meter indoor Gold
1989 - Budapest 3000 meter indoor Gold

Worldrecord

march 4, 1989 - Budapest 3000 meter indoor: 8 min 33.82 sec

(This record was broken in 2001)

Dutch records

1987 - Rome, 1500 meter: 4 min 03.63 sec
1986 - Brussels, mile: 4 min 22.40 sec
1988 - Zürich, 3000 meter: 8 min 33.97 sec

Awards
Preceded by Yvonne van Gennip	Dutch Sportswoman of the Year 1989	Succeeded by Leontien van Moorsel
Preceded by None	Rotterdam Sportswoman of the Year 1986–1989	Succeeded by Petra Kamstra