Use Heylen

Use Heylen

Ilse Heylen (born March 21, 1977 in Wilrijk , today Antwerp ) is a former Belgian judoka . She was Olympic third in 2004 and European champion in 2005.

Athletic career

The 1.61 m tall Ilse Heylen competed until 1996 with a half-light weight of up to 52 kilograms. From 1997 to 2001 she fought in the super light weight up to 48 kilograms. In 1997 she won her first Belgian championship title. In 1998 she finished seventh at the European Championships and won bronze at the Student World Championships . In 1999 bronze followed at the Summer Universiade. In 2000 she reached the final of the student world championships and received the silver medal. In 2001 she won her second Belgian championship title.

From 2002 Ilse Heylen fought again at half light weight. At the European Championships in 2002 she reached the semi-finals against the British Georgina Singleton . After her defeat, she also lost to Romanian Alina Alexandra Dumitru and finished in fifth place. In 2003 Heylens won her third championship title. At the European Championships in 2004 she was defeated in the final of the Romanian Ioana Aluaş . In Athens at the 2004 Olympic Games , she lost in the quarter-finals to Amarilis Savón from Cuba. With three wins in the hopes she won a bronze medal.

At the European Championships in Rotterdam in 2005 , Heylen won the semifinals over the Portuguese Telma Monteiro and in the final over Ioana Aluaş. In 2006 in Tampere she lost in the round of 16 against Aynur Samat from Turkey , but won a bronze medal in the hope round . In 2007 in Belgrade she lost to Telma Monteiro in the quarterfinals, again she fought her way to bronze. At the end of 2007 she won her fourth Belgian championship title. After four European championships with medals, Heylen finished seventh at the 2008 European Judo Championships . Four months later, she also finished seventh in the Beijing Olympics .

In 2009 at the European Championships in Tbilisi she lost to the Finnish Jaana Sundberg in the quarter-finals, but won a bronze medal with a victory over the Slovenian Petra Nareks . At the end of 2009 she won her fifth Belgian championship title. At the 2010 European Judo Championships in Vienna, Heylen lost to the Russian Natalja Kusjutina in the semi-finals , and in the battle for bronze she defeated Aynur Sarnat. In 2011 in Istanbul, the Belgian took seventh place. In the same year she won her sixth championship title. At the Olympic Games in London in 2012 , Heylen reached the semifinals, after defeats against the Cuban Yanet Bermoy and the French Priscilla Gneto , she finished fifth. At the end of 2012 she won her seventh Belgian championship title, fifteen years after her first title. Heylen fought in the World Cup until 2016. Her 45th and last medal in the World Cup was winning the 2016 African Open.

Web links

Commons : Ilse Heylen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ilse Heylen at JudoInside.com
• Ilse Heylen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )