User:Roeiertje/Christel Hiel

Christel Hiel (20 January 1976) is a Belgian retired rower and coach. Hiel is active as chief coach at ARV Sculling and junior coordinator at the Flemish Rowing Ligue.

Rower
Hiel started her international rowing career at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Glasgow on lake Strathclyde. She won silver on Sathurday and finished the regatta on a high with a gold medal on Sunday, both medals were in the quad. In 1992 she attended Coupe de la Jeunesse, again, this time on the Rotsee in Luzern. She got the same result, but this time in the more prestigious single scull. In 1993 she was selected for the first time for a world rowing championship, in Årungen, in the suburbs of Oslo. She won a silver medal in the double scull with Elke Seps. She considers this as the high of her career as a rower. In 1994 she came 13th junior World Championships at the olympic Oberschleißheim Regatta Course near Munich in the single scull. In 1996 she came 6th at the World Rowing U23 Championships at her home lake, Hazewinkel with Karen Baetsle in the double scull.

Coach
After her rowing career, Hiel became a coach. She has level A coaching license. In 2005 she became the chief coach of ARV Sculling, the club for which she rowed herself.

In addition to that she coached for the national team on multiple occasions. She coached Leen Blondelle and Marianne de Ridder throughout their careers. She also coached the woman's coxed four that came 4th at the European Rowing championships Trakai, Lithuania 9th at the world champs on the Willem-Alexander baan in Rotterdam. Thereafter, she has coached Ruben Somers, a rower from her club. Together with Somers she attended World Cup I in Belgrado in 2017, World Rowing Champs in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, also in 2017, World Cup I and III in Belgrado and on the Rotsee in Lucerne and the European Rowing Championchips at Strathclyde Lake inGlasgow. Hiel also coached numerous crew for the Coupe de la Jeunesse.

In 2020, due to the dismissal of Dominique Basset - technical chief from 2009 to 2020 - she became junior coordinator for the Flemish Rowing Ligue.