Biography
Spier started his career as an athlete at Sparta Atletiek in Den Haag. At this team he showed to be talented, but his performances were not at the top level yet. Due to this there are no notable results of him as a D, C and B-junior. As an A-junior however he qualified himself at the Dutch National Championships for seniors through a fifth position at the decathlon (7164 points) for the Junior World Championships in Santiago. In Santiago he started with 10.54 over 100 metres, which was the fourth Dutch junior time in history. However, due to a hamstring injury he was unable to continue his tournament.
A year later, in 2001 he was able to represent the Netherlands at the decathlon at the European Under-23 Championships that were held in Amsterdam. Also in this tournament he was suffering from an injury, but still managed to achieve a ninth position overall. In 2002 he came in second at the 60 metres indoor held at the Dutch National Championships. At the same event he reached the fourth place at the 60 metres hurdles. With these performances he qualified himself for the European Indoor Championships in Vienna for both distances. He eventually was eliminated in the first round series in both occasions.
The 4×100 metres relay team consisting of Caimin Douglas, Maarten Heisen, Patrick van Luijk and Guus Hoogmoed, with Gregory Sedoc and Virgil Spier as reserves, did qualify for the Olympics. Initially they finished in 17th position during the qualification process while only the first 16 teams would qualify, but due to the cancellation of the Australian team they were allowed to start in Beijing. In their qualification heat Heisen, Hoogmoed, Van Luijk and Douglas placed third behind Trinidad and Tobago and Japan, but in front of Brazil. Their time of 38.87 was the fifth fastest out of all sixteen participating nations in the first round and they qualified for the final. In the final, the second baton change between Hoogmoed and Van Luijk failed, resulting in a slow time. They still finished the race to place seventh, before the disqualified Chinese team. Spier himself did not participate.
Read more about this topic: Virgil Spier
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)