Nona Van Assche from Opwijk in Flemish Brabant has won the gold medal in her age category at the World Championships ‘Obstacle Course Racing’, in Costa Rica. The challenge involves participants running a course where they have to face various obstacles along the way. ‘I did not expect this at all. I am so happy,’ Nona responds.
‘I never dared to dream this would happen. I still can't believe it,’ says a jubilant Nona. ‘It was an incredible surprise when they called me on stage.’ Being able to call herself world champion at the age of 10 is pretty special, even though victory did not come out of the blue.
‘I started the sport because I was good on the rings in the playground,’ Nona explains. ‘My parents then looked for a sport that involved this skill, and that's how I ended up at the Invictus club in Aalst.’
Nowadays, Nona trains twice a week, and also goes running twice a week. That requires a lot of discipline. ‘At the club, she mainly trains on obstacles, such as rings, ropes she has to climb, nets she has to climb under, walls she has to cross, but also real grips in the shape of coffee beans or corncobs, but they can also be cones or balls,’ says her mum, Natalie Verraes. ‘So it is not only a physically, but also a technically very challenging sport.’
The sport is not yet very well known, even though there are the world championships. ‘Last year the world championship was in Belgium, though few people know that’ explains Mum Natalie. ‘Next year the European championship is in Portugal, and the next world championships are in Sweden.’