Patrizia van der Weken;
Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu
On Saturday 19 January 2025, the Coque in Luxembourg-Kirchberg hosted the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting, an indoor athletics competition elevated to World Athletics Silver Label status.
The event featured 160 international athletes representing 35 countries across five continents. A standout moment for local fans was the performance of Luxembourg’s own Patrizia van der Weken. The sprinter, who placed fourth in the 100m at last year’s European Championships and fifteenth at the Paris 2024 Olympics, delivered an exceptional showing.
Van der Weken set a new personal best in the 60m at the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting. In the qualifiers, the 25-year-old clocked 7.18 seconds, only to surpass this in the final with an impressive 7.07 seconds, setting a new national indoor record for women. In an exclusive interview with Chronicle.lu, Patrizia van der Weken shared her excitement: “I was not expecting to run that fast in the sixties. I knew that I was in shape, that's for sure. But we are still very early in the year, so I was just hoping to do better than my season opener two weeks ago, which I did. So I am really glad.”
She also competed in the 200m, recording a time of 23.17 seconds, another national record. “And then the 200, that's something I'm not used to do. So it was fun stepping up a bit in distance and trying to challenge some specialists. [So] I was happy with today's flows. My main goal for this season is Europeans and Worlds indoors. I'm trying to do both. So now everything's about getting ready for those championships, and then I hope to do really well in the Netherlands and in China,” she said.
The European Athletics Indoor Championships 2025 will take place in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, from 6 to 9 March, while the World Athletics Indoor Championships will follow from 21 to 23 March in Nanjing, China.
22-year-old Polish hurdler Jakub Szymanski, a silver medallist at the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships, broke the Polish national record in the 60m hurdles, running 7.46 seconds in the preliminaries and improving to 7.41 seconds in the final. Sharing his excitement with Chronicle.lu, Szymanski said: “I’m very happy. I thought about something like this - 7.45, but I am shocked that I ran 7.41. It's wonderful feelings. I can't say anything about it because it's my first time in life having such a feeling. This is a result that can give me a medal at the European Indoor Championships and the World Indoor Championships. It's my dream, and I will do it.”
Among other notable performances, Spain’s Elvin Josue Canales set a national record in the men’s 800m with a time of 1:44.65. Italy’s Marta Zenoni clocked a personal best of 4:03.59 in the women’s 1500m, while Belgium’s Pieter Sisk achieved a personal record of 3:36.71 in the men’s 1500m. Germany’s Florian Bremm also improved his personal best in the 3000m with 7:39.01, as did compatriot Jessica-Bianca Wessolly in the women’s 200m with 22.84 seconds. These high achievements all set new meeting records for the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting.
