Côte d’Or National Sports Complex welcomed Nafissatou Thiam, world champion, two-time Olympian gold winner, and record holder of heptathlon for a training camp as she prepares for the Paris Olympics games 2024 in Mauritius. Côte d’Or has hosted 13 international training camps since January 2022 with international and elite athletes, from 14 different countries, competing in various disciplines
Mauritius is getting global recognition in performance sports via the ASPC network. The ASPC (Association of Sports Performance Centres) registered High Performance Centre Mauritius through the exclusive contact of Yannick Lincoln, Director of the HPC at Côte d’Or, is attracting global and elite athletes for international training camps* from Europe and Africa. The state-of-the-art sports complex provides an excellent platform in sports development and high performance training for elite athletes of all levels and specialisation such as track and field events as well as swimming.
Global heptathlete sensation and sporting superstar, Nafissatou Thiam, and her coach, Michael Van Der Plaetsen, chose Mauritius through sportperformancecentres.org** for their final preparations and fitness training to get ready for their biggest sporting meeting of the year 2024, Paris Olympic Games 2024, which will take place in France on 26 July 2024 till 11 August 2024. The Belgian duo is on the island for a 12-day training camp at Côte d’Or to take advantage of the high-level sports facilities located in proximity at a foot distance, and to soak in the tropical weather which is conducive for their advanced physical drills.
On top of the High Performance Centre and upscale outdoor gym, Côte d’Or suits their high demands seamlessly to practice the seven track and field combined events of the heptathlon; 100 M hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 M, long jump, javelin throw and 800 M. To keep the heptathlete connected with her objectives during the training sessions in a competition atmosphere, Nafi is using the World Athletics certified Class One athletics track and field, complemented with all equipment to meet her practice requirements.
About Nafissatou Thiam
Born in Belgium to a Senegalese father and a Belgian mother, Nafissatou Thiam, known as Nafi, is a pentathlete and heptathlete specialising in multi-event competition. Apart from being four-time national champion of Belgium, Nafi is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon women’s event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Nafi is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title. She made her debut in athletics in 2009 when she was seven years old and made her mark by winning her first national age group titles. Since then, she has been breaking records and establishing new ones.
About Michael Van Der Plaetsen
Michael Van Der Plaetsen is a former Belgian decathlete. His biggest achievements are winning the gold medal for the decathlon at the 2016 European Athletics Championships, winning a bronze medal for the heptathlon at the 2014 World Indoor Championships, and a gold medal for the decathlon at the 2013 and 2015 Summer Universiade.