Belgium's Borlée brothers head to Iceland for cold weather training

European 400m champion Kevin Borlee of Belgium.

Many European athletes go south to train in warm weather locations at this time of the year but Belgium's 2010 European Athletics Championships 400m gold medallist Kevin Borlée has gone in the opposite direction. 

Borlée, who was also the best European at the 2011 World Championships when he took a bronze medal over one lap of the track, his twin brother and Belgian 400m record holder Jonathan as well as seven other potential members of the Belgium's 4x400m relay team at next summer's Olympic Games in London have headed north for a five-day trek across an Icelandic glacier.

The trek started on Saturday and they are likely to have to complete their mission in sub-zero temperatures, which could reach 20 below in the coming week.

“It is designed as a team building exercise. Performance, whether it's in business or in sport, is as much mental as it is physical,” explained their coach and father Jacques Borlée at the recent European Athletics Awards Night in Tenerife, Spain, on 15 October.

"Four or five days together without a phone or computer can only mean that we get to know each other better." said Jonathan Borlée. "There are also two new athletes in this group of nine runners, these are guys that we still need to get to know better."

The British broadcaster BBC is charting the daily progress of their trek, which started on Saturday with the noted French polar explorer Alain Hubert accompanying them as their guide and mentor.

Daily progress reports can be found here. 

Borlée senior, the 1983 European Athletics Indoor Championships 200m silver medallist, is Belgium's head coach for the 400m and 4x400m relay.

He was in Tenerife as a representative of the 84 winners of this year's European Athletics Coaching Awards, which came from 26 different countries.

“I want our 4x400m team to win at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki and the target is to run under 2:59 next summer,” added Borlée senior. The current Belgian 4x400m record is 2:59.37, which has stood since the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Belgium, with a quartet, which included both of the Borlée brothers, took the 4x400m bronze medals at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

All being well, the Borlée brother will return from Iceland in time to officially open the new international standard running track in the Belgian town of Ieper / Ypres next Saturday.