The Wageningen University team switches during the 2024 Batavieren Race. The team came in third. Photo Lukas Vugts There will no longer be a university competition during the Batavieren Race in 2025. As a result, the coming campusrun no longer serves as a qualifier for the WUR team. Wageningen is, however, still represented at the start of this relay race. Resource asked Biotechnology student Kuba Kraj, of the Tartlétos Batavieren committee, to explain.
The WUR university team made it to, or almost to, the podium of the Batavieren Race in recent years. This race is an annual relay race from Nijmegen to Enschede. Wageningen’s athletics club Tartlétos gathered the 25 fastest men and women in Wageningen and facilitated participation in the event. They would traditionally use their campusrun as a selection event. Fast runners wanting to join the team for the Batavieren Race were expected to demonstrate their capabilities in the five-kilometre race on the campus.
That has all changed this year. The Batavieren Race will no longer be held as a relay race due to a lack of volunteers willing to help organise the event. The current one-man organiser wants to keep the name alive by organising a 20-hour run on the UT campus in Enschede. ‘There is no room for a university competition’, says Kraj, who serves on the Batavieren committee for Tartlétos. Hence, there will be no WUR team at the start on 9 and 10 May.
Tartlétos-team
Still, Wageningen is represented at the alternative Batavieren Race. ‘Our association will join’, Kraj explains. ‘We are currently investigating how many of our members want to join. I expect we will easily get a team of up to thirty runners together, particularly as it is all a little less serious without the university competition.’
‘For the campus run on Tuesday evening, 1 April, you don’t need to be a member of Tartlétos’, he adds. ‘That event is for everyone, including fast runners wanting to challenge us.’
More information on the campus run
Date: Tuesday, 1 April
Time: Registration from 17:30, start at 19:05
Location: Entrance Sports Centre De Bongerd
Registration: https://tartletos.nl/en/campusrun/
