Douwe Amels

rdf:langString Douwe Amels

rdf:langString Douwe Jorn Amels (born 16 September 1991) is a Dutch track and field athlete who specialises in the high jump. He has a personal best of 2.28 m (7 ft 5+3⁄4 in) and represented his country at the World Championships in Athletics in 2013 and in 2019. Born in Drachten, his family was interested in athletics and he joined Impala, a local club, and began working with coach Hans-Jörg Thomaskamp. He set a national junior record for the high jump in 2010 and competed at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics. His first senior national titles followed in 2011 and 2012, when he won both indoors and outdoors titles. Having reached the peak of senior national athletics, he remained in the age category competitions internationally, jumping at the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships and then the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships, winning the gold medal at the latter with a personal best jump of 2.28 m (7 ft 5+3⁄4 in). Amels was selected to compete for the Netherlands at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, but at that competition he was some way off his new best, being eliminated in the qualifying rounds with a best jump of 2.17 m (7 ft 1+1⁄4 in). He failed to improve upon his best in the 2014 and 2015 seasons (jumping 2.23 m and 2.24 m, respectively), though he was also undertaking a degree in corporate law at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam during this period. He appeared for the Netherlands at the 2014 European Team Championships, placing tenth, and jumped in the qualifying round of the 2015 Summer Universiade.He equaled his personal best of 2.28 m in Zoetermeer (NED) on 28 AUG 2019, qualifying at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.