The Flying Dutchman Team

Last Sunday we had the half marathon in Venlo - called the "Venloop"

21.1 km running with 2 team members joining, Maikel running this one for many years in a row - with Ivo actually preparing for his Rotterdam marathon and only a few days before getting an entry and with Stan and Arjen.

Ivo running a 1:44;19
Maikel setting another PB - using STRYD power with a fantastic 1;18:55

Fantastic performances guys!

Next stop - The Rotterdam Marathon for Ivo on the 12th of April and "The Watersnood Marathon" on the 3rd of May for Maikel


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Back to last Saturday where 2 team members went for another big event.

Hans racing IronMan 70.3 Taupo New Zealand after racing his last middle distance tri back in November 2024 and Joerg going for the "Mountainman Winter Trail in Reit im Winkl in the South of Germany ( 31km running through ice/snow with over 750m elevation)

Hans coming out of the water in second position as always with a strong swim in his 55-59 age group - controlling the power and effort on the bike while completing his 70.3 with this second fastest ever half marathon ending up 10th in his age group and setting a Personal Best on a course with more than 700,melevation on the bike and Joerg running almost 4 hours - wearing ice spikes in a "brutally exhausting event" but loving it to the max

Well done you guys again and again inspiring all of us and of course as always on behalf of this whole team - congratulations !


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Back to the weekend of the 7th and 8th of February where we had Jaap together with his daughter running the "Groningen Eve half marathon", where we had Leo running a 24km trail run (no pics), where we had Inalizem Dharmin, Ajay, Roland, Rob and Matt running the Burj 2 Burj Half marathon and where we had Asma smashing her Abu Dhabi Master Games olympic and even setting a new Personal Best on that 10 km run!

Smiles, smiles and more smiles !

Congratulations guys with again excellent performances


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Back to the weekend of the 31st of January and the first of February where we had Samya racing Challenge Sir Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi and where we had Farah, Dharmin, Saleh and Haitham running the Dubai marathon one day later.

After having joined the 2025 version as a volunteer - Samya liked the area so much she decided to race it this year. The buildup to the event was amazing - fitness very nicely improving but in the last 2-3 weeks before the race she felt like lacking a bit of energy sometimes and even some dizziness so we had to be extra careful.

A good swim - a smart bike - making sure the energy was still there after that 1900m swim and 96k on the bike - but despite that ... on the run it became harder and harder and also on race day that dizziness showed up - but she is strong - mentally very strong - completed the race and even became 3rd in her age group and qualified for Challenge World Champs later this year in Samorin

On Sunday we had both Farah and Saleh running their first marathon with excellent finish times and we had both Dharmin and Haitham setting themselves a Personal Best so also Sunday was another very successful day.

Massive congratulations again on behalf of this whole team guys!


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Another great long weekend with events done in Saudi (Alula 23km trail) where we had both Hana and John joining - RAK Tri 76 where Roger stepped again on the podium and with the RAK Olympic Tri on Sunday where we had Farah - Ajay - Roland and Saleh racing

Congratulations guys again setting yourself some nice Personal bests again!


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Second weekend of 2026 done with again some very nice events done by our team members with John running for the second year in a row the "Disney runs" - 4 days in a row running a 5-10-21.1 and finishing with a 42.2 km full marathon.

While on Sunday we had Roland going for the 10 km while Katrin, Inalize, Issa, Matt, Mark, Haitham, Sultan and Rob went for the half marathon distance

Personal bests, faster finish times vs last year and smiling faces ...

The best half marathon in the UAE - the Dubai Creek Strides one !


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Fantastic start of the year for@sultanmeaili (Sultan) with an excellent performance last weekend in the Olympic duathlon in Dubai - becoming 3rd in his age group !

Congratulations man on behalf of this whole team


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First "standalone" marathon done by Maikel .vanhaagen last Sunday in Spijkenisse after already finishing around 6 while doing the full distance IronMans.

The big goal was running a sub 3 hours marathon - STRYD over time providing some nice data to run with a specific power number but straight from the start he went out a bit faster.

Joined a group and felt great and after around 34-35 km decided to leave that group and to give it all

2:52:15 and a fantastic time for that 42.2 km distance and the fastest time ever set by a member of this team

What a year ! Another world class performance and the list goes on and on and on !

Congratulations on behalf of this whole team - and also for inspiring this whole team "coach"


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Back to Saturday, the 18th of October, back to IronMan 70.3 Cascais in beautiful Portugal where we had our team member Matt racing.

A really good preparation was done with long swims, bike rides simulating the elevation and longer runs mixed with some higher intensity and that all came out very nicely on race day.

Our "English Dolphin" even coming out of the water in first position - then going onto that bike course where all elevation was almost in that first 45km and then completing his race with a run which he enjoyed so much that he found his love back for it completely.

Supported by his family and combining the event with a few days in the capital (Lisbon) too making some great memories again.

Congratulations on behalf of this whole team with an excellent performance - next stop - Dubai T100 on the 16th of November


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What a weekend this was again !

On Friday we had both Ali and Osama running the Amman Half Marathon, on Saturday we had Matt racing IronMan Cascais 70.3 in Portugal (more about that in the next post) and on Sunday we had Celeste and Jaap (together with his daughter for the first running a marathon) doing the Amsterdam marathon, we had VJ, Sultan, Haitham and Mufaddal one of the oldest triathlons in the UAE (Mamzar) and we had Stefanie in Canada running a fantastic half marathon in a place called Ucluelet

All of them completing again their events, all of them having a fantastic day and all of them enjoying it to the max.

Congratulations on behalf of this whole team and keep flying!


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Jaap de Groot
Stefanie Trombetta
Haitham Abu-Sharia

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Once more back to the weekend of the 13th-14th of September where we had our

Joerg "die Sonne immer scheint " racing IronMan 70.3 in Erkner Germany

A rainy day in that eastern part of Germany - a 1900m swim - riding his road bike on that race day and showing that nice control over a longer day by completing that last 21.1 km run in a 5:18/km speed passing many many athletes and finishing in a 5:37:49 in the 50-54 age group with his family on the side for support

Gratuliere 😂on behalf of this whole team !

Next stop - Istanbul marathon on the second of November

Keep smiling !


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Joerg Sonne

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Once more back to Saturday, the 13th of September where we had 2 team members racing the full distance at Challenge Almere. the Netherlands.

Jaap we already posted about, now its time to shed some light on Maikel.

And that should be a LOT of light :)

Every year improving more and more, 3 weeks before already coming up with an excellent race at the "Triathlon Epe" where he ended up 3rd in a strong field but on this Saturday coming up with an even stronger masterclass performance.

Maikel van Haagen

A 60:55 swim over 3800m
A 4 hours 34 time over 180 km (39.1 km an hour!)
and a 3:21;37 on the marathon (12.5 km an hour) getting very very close to that big sub 9 hours goal which he has set himself

Supported as always by his family and we know that even more is possible as he got sick at around the 35km marker on the run which otherwise would already had given him that sub 9

Another impressive day.... but he is hungry and wants more -

2nd in the open division 35-39 age group - qualified for the Challenge Championships and already signed up for some nice events going for that sub 9 and IronMan World Champs qualification

Congratz on behalf of this whole team - Coach !


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Challenge Almere-Amsterdam

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