Achievements:
ITF Awards – Best Umpire
Center Referee @ 2004 (Junior), 2005 & 2007 World Championships
Center Referee @ European Championships since 2003

It's very nice being an umpire on championships, as it's the ideal opportunity to make new friends and meet "old" ones. Being an umpire is hard work, but the atmosphere between the referees is always excellent and this makes it worthwhile. You work closely together during several days, trying to run the championship (or at least your own ring), and even during the spare time the umpires spend time together. So because of this I think I have made friends all over the world.

Being a competitor for years myself, I really missed that specific feeling when I first stopped with competition. I was already corner referee at that time, but when I became a center referee I got a bit of that feeling back. As center referee you're really in between the competitors, you can feel the nervousness.

I really enjoy being an umpire and especially being a center referee. As competitor I appreciated good umpires, so I'm always trying (together with my fellow umpires) to keep up to date, to learn the rules over and over again, to make the best judgements, as this is only fair towards competitors that have sacrificed so much to participate and trained a lot. And it also keeps me alert.