Dutch athlete goes into the World Championships hoping that experience will make a difference Anouk Vetter believes anything is possible. The Dutch 30-year-old, who is an ASICS athlete, will take part in her fifth world championships in Budapest. She knows more than most that the experience of having competed at so many of these championships could play a part in the result. Vetter has already got two world medals to her name – silver in Oregon 2022 and bronze at London 2017 – and is hoping to at least make the podium in the Hungarian capital. Her path to that goal has perhaps been made easier with the withdrawal of double Olympic and world heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam. The Belgian beat Vetter to the world title last year. Adrianna Sułek, who is a world indoor and European silver medallist in the pentathlon and heptathlon respectively, is also out of Budapest as she is pregnant. The heptathlon is still bound to be one of the highest standards in recent history but has become a lot more open in recent weeks. For Vetter, it’s an opportunity she’s keen to grasp. “All of the girls are scoring big points,” she tells AW. “It’s amazing and motivational. I have to be really good to get on the podium and 6600 points might not be enough to get a medal. It’s cool and I’m proud if I can be with the girls competing for the medals. It will be a crazy competition. “It was amazing to compete at such a high level and win a silver medal at both the Olympics and the worlds. But everyone in Budapest will start at zero points and I’ve got to take it event by event. I’m just really excited to compete.” Vetter’s journey to Budapest hasn’t been simple. Her last complete heptathlon was in Oregon after she pulled out of this season’s Götzis four disciplines in, due to problems with her knee and Achilles. She did five weeks of alternative training and Vetter states that “everything has gone well”. The Dutch athlete won Götzis – often known as the multi-event Mecca – last year and it highlights that when everything clicks, she is a force to be reckoned with in the heptathlon. “I hope to be at my best in Budapest,” she says. “I’m going to enjoy and fight for it. Whatever the result will be, it will be. I will give my all and there’t not much else to do. It’s a unique situation to be in an event and stadium like that. “Last season was insane and it was an interesting one. I won but then I had a little bit of a hamstring injury. I wasn’t sure about the world championships [Oregon] but I never imagined that I could score that many points and finish second. The level in that heptathlon was crazy. I scored 6867 points and I won silver.” Vetter first became a household name in the Netherlands seven years ago, when she claimed a European heptathlon title on home soil in Amsterdam. Then, in London a year later, she added a world bronze medal and her stock rose again. The questions from the media changed and the hunter started to become the hunted. A combination of injuries and doubts saw Vetter subsequently fall out of love with the sport. Now, reflecting on that period ahead of Budapest, the 30-year-old understands the significance of mental health and wants to be open about her struggles as an elite athlete, to help others who are potentially going through the same thing. “That bronze [at London 2017] was more of a relief and showed that I could medal on a global stage,” Vetter adds. “After that I struggled with the expectation around me, the media and what I put on myself. “The questions were different and I found it difficult for a few years. After that I wondered whether I should quit the sport. “In the years I wasn’t feeling well, my body was really good. Training was great but I wasn’t happy. I believe that mental health is more important than the physical part. The balance between those is essential. “Mental health is everything. You have good and bad days. A few years ago it wasn’t a big subject but it’s got a lot more attention in the athletics world and hopefully in sports in general. People are more outspoken now. We are asking so much of ourselves and sometimes it can be really overwhelming.” It ties in with ASICS’ philosophy of a “sound mind in a sound body” and Vetter is grateful for the support they have given her, both “as an athlete and human”. After the 2019 World Championships in Doha, in which Vetter failed to finish her heptathlon competition, she took several months out of the sport.The culmination of Vetter pushing the reset button, taking things step-by-step and rediscovering a love for athletics was an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo one year later. For the Dutch athlete, it was vindication that taking time away was a sign of strength and not weakness. Given Budapest is a European based championships, it will also be easier for her family to be in the stadium, especially as the Olympics was held without fans. It’s extra motivation for Vetter. “The last few holding camps we’ve been a long way from home and this time round I’ve been in the Netherlands,” she tells AW. “My mum will be in the stadium and it will be special. It’s nice when you’re sitting in your event waiting and then you try and spot her in the crowd. They are all aiming to be there at the Paris Olympics! “When I was a baby I was already on the track. It’s really nice as my nieces and uncle have also been on the track. It’s a very big athletics family. It was quite special and a lot of fun growing up. They are really supportive but not too much! “Sometimes in a car I might daydream and think ‘as a little girl I never saw myself as a major medallist’. I just thought I’d give it a go and enjoy it. Maybe I could compete at the world championships? So I’m proud. When I look at my medals in the cabinet I see an Olympic medal and it feels like a dream. “Now, it’s Budapest. So let’s go!”