World Athletics Championships: Nafi Thiam says 'dark cloud' led to shock heptathlon withdrawal as coach 'ashamed to be Belgian' amid federation row
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Published 20/09/2025 at 11:34 GMT+1
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Heptathlon superstar Nafi Thiam has surprisingly withdrawn from the World Athletics Championships with two events remaining in Tokyo. The three-time Olympic and two-time world champion hit out at a "dark cloud" that had formed amid a row with the Belgian athletics federation. Her coach, Michael Van der Plaetsen, said the chain of events has left him feeling "ashamed to be Belgian".
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Three-time Olympic champion Nafi Thiam says she felt "a dark cloud hung over me" after a shock withdrawal from the World Championships left the heptathlon star’s coach feeling "ashamed to be Belgian".
Thiam was left facing an uphill battle to medal with two disciplines to go on Saturday morning, sliding to eighth overall after finishing almost two seconds slower than leader Anna Hall of the United States in a 200m race she described as a "disaster".
The news comes amid tension between the 31-year-old, a two-time world and three-time European champion, and the Belgian athletics federation, after Thiam was reportedly barred from a pre-world championships training camp.
"It was really a struggle on the first day," said Thiam.
"I had so many negative thoughts about quitting. I tried to stay positive, but a dark cloud hung over me throughout the competition, and that was hard.
"When you start a competition with so much negativity, it's hard to flip the switch during the event and tell yourself, 'I'm enjoying myself, and this is great'."
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It has been 10 years since Thiam started a world championship or Olympic heptathlon event and failed to medal, but the Belgian superstar has faced a difficult build-up in Tokyo.
She said before the event that she was given five days’ warning by the Belgian athletics federation that she would not be part of the pre-camp after being frozen out for refusing to sign a code of conduct – claims the federation has denied.
However, Thiam and her coach, Michael Van der Plaetsen, both referred to ongoing off-track tensions after deciding to drop out.
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Van der Plaetsen said he was "angry" about how things had transpired in Tokyo.
"Normally, I never speak up, but now I'm angry. Everyone is complaining about the federation," he said.
"Everything is going wrong. Who is going to stop this?"
Addressing the tension with the federation, he added: "That's 99% of it. The other one per cent is probably that she's not as physically fit as she was a year ago."
"I am ashamed to be Belgian," Van der Plaetsen added. "Coaches from other countries apologised to me for the poor conditions in Belgium."
"The federation says that everyone is equal before the law, but this isn't a school trip. This is top-level sports; this is elite. This is the story of a very small country with a very big athlete, and look how it ends."
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Johnson-Thompson in the mix
Britain’s defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson remains in medal contention with two events remaining, sitting in third place ahead of the final session.
The 32-year-old recorded a long jump best of 6.42m on Saturday, taking her up to 4,874 points – 167 behind Hall and 59 shy of Taliyah Brooks – ahead of the climactic javelin and 800m events.
Bidding for a third world title, Johnson-Thompson finished a narrow second to Thiam at the Paris Olympics to take the silver medal.
"It was hard to get going this morning, it was such a quick turnaround," she told the BBC.
"I felt good, the body felt good, I'm just really gutted about that final no jump. It just shows the margins in sport. You can't really get any closer."
Watch and stream the 2025 World Athletics Championships on TNT Sports and discovery+
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