Each day in the run up to the 2021 European Indoor Championships in Toruń, Decathlonpedia will feature some of the athletes competing in the heptathlon. Today, the 2020 Dutch heptathlon champion and 2021 long jump champion, Pieter Braun.

Pieter Braun is one of the most under-rated athletes in decathlon. Caught between the achievements of the great Eelco Sintnicolaas, the exploits of young athletes coming through (including his teammate in Toruń, Rik Taam), and the dazzling success of the Dutch heptathletes, he tends to fly under the radar for the casual fan outside the Netherlands.

But he is a contender, rarely out of the top 8 in competition. Braun was 7th in the decathlon at the European Championships in Amsterdam in 2016, 7th in the European Championships in Berlin in 2018, and 7th in the World Championships in Doha in 2019. 

Pieter is a great thrower with javelin, discus and shot marks in excess of 69m, 45m and 15m respectively. He doesn’t often do indoors, but when he does his fearsome long jump comes into play, in which he can leap beyond 7.70. His heptathlon best is 6072, set when winning the Dutch heptathlon title in February 2020, and in 2021 he is already the Dutch indoor long jump champion, winning with 7.43 last month. He is also faster than the pack in the 1000m, so one to look out for if things are close in the final event. This is Pieter's second time at the European Indoor Championships. He competed in Prague 2015, but succumbed to a no height in the pole vault.

Pieter takes up his place in Toruń on the basis of his decathlon mark from 2019.

Original photo: Bjorn Paree.

Gabby Pieraccini

Brief athletics career peaked with a glorious medal for Glasgow University in the 4x200 relay in 1992 (look it up, it’s true, honest). Since then been talking about decathlon to anyone who will listen, or anyone who has ears. Civil servant in Edinburgh, Scotland. Loves to tell the stories of decathlon: the highs, the lows, the joy and the tears.

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