Eliott Crestan

Eliott Crestan (born 22 February 1999) is a Belgian middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres. In this discipline, he won bronze medals at the 2018 World U20 Championships and the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. In 2024, he broke Ivo Van Damme's 800 metres national record that had stood for 48 years with a time of 1:42.43. He participated in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, reaching the semi-final stage in both. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in the men's 800 meters semifinals, Crestan ran the fastest non-final qualifying time in Olympic history of 1:43.72. In March 2025, he won a silver medal in the men's 800 metres at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands having led the entire race from the front before being pipped at the line by Dutch athlete Samuel Chapple. Two weeks later, he followed that up with a silver medal in the 800 metres at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. In early February 2026, at the Czech Indoor Gala leg of the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Gold Tour Crestan set a new Belgian indoor record for the 800 metres moving himself up to fourth on the world short track all-time list with his time of 1:43.83. Thanks to further wins on that tour in Liévin and Toruń, Crestan was the overall 800 metres winner of the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Gold Tour. In March 2026, he was selected for the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń in Poland where, on 22 March, he won a silver medal in the men's 800 metres. In August in the immediate runup to the 2026 European Athletics Championships and having already travelled to Birmingham, England, he withdrew from the competition following a training session at Alexander Stadium suffering from a hamstring tear in his left thigh.

International competitions

Personal bests Outdoor 400 metres – 46.79 (Cergy-Pontoise 2024) 600 metres - 1:14.47 (Liège) 800 metres – 1:42.43 NR (Paris 2024) 1500 metres – 3:46.44 (Louvain-la-Neuve 2020) Indoor 400 metres – 47.58 (Louvain-la-Neuve 2023) 600 metres - 1:14:92 ABP NBP (Louvain-La-Neuve 2025) 800 metres – 1:43.83 (Ostrava 2026) 1500 metres – 3:46.44 (Louvain-La-Neuve 2020)