Start of the women's 200m at the National Indoor Championships; Credit: Ievgenii Karanov

On Sunday 1 March 2026, Luxembourg sprinter Patrizia Van der Weken set a new national 200m record of 23.09 seconds after winning the event at the National Indoor Championships 2026 at the Coque in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

The 26-year-old achieved the feat just ten days after improving her own national 60m record in Torun, Poland, where she clocked 7.01 seconds.

“I was very much shocked. I knew that I could go fast. […] I was in personal-best shape, but being in personal-best shape and actually doing a personal best are two different things. I just tried to put a good race together and everything turned out quite well. It was not a perfect race, so I think there's more to come as well. It was very, very fun,” she told Chronicle.lu.

At the National Indoor Championships, Patrizia Van der Weken won the 200m in 23.09 seconds, improving her own national record by eight hundredths of a second. “It's been a good day. I was not feeling my best coming back from Torun and then all the training and stuff. So I wasn't the fastest today, but I wanted to show up and just have my race. It went good. So I can't complain,” she said.

Her main target this season will be the World Athletics Indoor Championships, which will take place at the same arena in Torun at the end of March. She said she will remain in Luxembourg for the next two weeks to continue training, before tapering ahead of the championships in Poland.

National 800m record holder Fanny Arendt had also been expected to compete in Torun. However, according to Jean-Sébastien Dauch, Director General of the Luxembourg Athletics Federation (FLA), she will miss the championships due to injury. “Fanny Arendt was qualified, but she won't go,” he confirmed.

Jean-Sébastien Dauch added that he hopes national 60m hurdles record holder Victoria Rausch will be able to compete, having missed the National Indoor Championships due to illness. He also expressed optimism that Vera Bertemes-Hoffmann, who won both the 1500m and 3000m titles on Sunday, may secure a place in Torun.

Back at the Coque, several other notable performances were recorded during the National Indoor Championships. Louis Müller successfully defended his national indoor triple jump title with a personal best of 14.86m. In the men’s 60m, David Wallig was the only athlete to dip below seven seconds in the heats, equalling his personal best of 6.89 seconds, which has stood as the national U20 record since 2023. He went on to win the final in 6.92 seconds and later claimed the 200m title in 21.93 seconds. In the long jump, Bob Goebel reached the seven-metre mark for the first time. Matteo Bruognolo recorded a personal best of 6.93m in the same event. On the track, Maxine Libens-Thein clocked 4:29.60 in the 1500m, marking the best performance in the national U16 and U18 categories. Luc Scheller also achieved a personal best of 8:52.93 in the 3000m.

The championships also featured a Special Olympics Luxembourg race, won by Léo Wirtz in 8.49 seconds.