What about a great story on a Sunday evening. Our redaction talked with Ben Malisart, the youngest speaker of Belgium. Malisart is only 19 years old but he is not a strange face in the Belgian, international circuit. He is one of the fixed speakers of Mechelen, Knokke and Wolvertem and a good friend of Matt Millin, who we interviewed earlier this week. Malisart tells us about the craziest thing that happened to him in his young career.
"I can be very short about the Corona crisis. I really hope that we can start again soon and I really hoop Knokke Hippique can take place. This is one of my favorite shows. Others? I really like to do Mechelen, it's the 'closure of the year' for me. Besides that I only recently spoke a show in 'De Peelbergen' with Matt Millin. We often work together and we became close friends. But in the end I really like speaking in general, so I love all shows honestly. No matter if it's an international or a regional show, I always do it with the same passion".
I heard that Matt once kind of 'pranked' you in Knokke... "(Laughs). Yes, I honestly think that was one of the most stressful moments of my life. At one point, Matt came to me because 'he needed someone to interview a rider next to the arena' during the CSI5* Grand Prix of Knokke. There was a filming crew present and I got a list with riders I could interview. Matt told me they would record it, but it wasn't live, so if things weren't going according to plan, we could do the interview again".
But.... "I was already completely stressed because I couldn't find a rider who wanted to be interviewed. I was 17 years old, I was getting nervous and I saw that the camera crew was getting a bit stressy as well. Eventually Jos Verlooy saved me. I saw him walking by, I knew I had only two minutes left the find a rider and after a little hesitation he did wanted to do the interview for me. I still remember the camera crew counting down, which seemed weird at the tile, but I was still nervous because I took me so long to find a rider and I was shaking, so I didn't pay much attention to it. At that moment I saw the camera crew whispering to Matt -'are you sure about this?'- but I somehow managed to struggle myself through the interview. Later that evening, Matt told me that I was actually live on Eurosport that time for three million people. The only thing I remember after that, is everything turning black in front of my eyes(laughs hard)".
"I can be very short about the Corona crisis. I really hope that we can start again soon and I really hoop Knokke Hippique can take place. This is one of my favorite shows. Others? I really like to do Mechelen, it's the 'closure of the year' for me. Besides that I only recently spoke a show in 'De Peelbergen' with Matt Millin. We often work together and we became close friends. But in the end I really like speaking in general, so I love all shows honestly. No matter if it's an international or a regional show, I always do it with the same passion".
I heard that Matt once kind of 'pranked' you in Knokke... "(Laughs). Yes, I honestly think that was one of the most stressful moments of my life. At one point, Matt came to me because 'he needed someone to interview a rider next to the arena' during the CSI5* Grand Prix of Knokke. There was a filming crew present and I got a list with riders I could interview. Matt told me they would record it, but it wasn't live, so if things weren't going according to plan, we could do the interview again".
But.... "I was already completely stressed because I couldn't find a rider who wanted to be interviewed. I was 17 years old, I was getting nervous and I saw that the camera crew was getting a bit stressy as well. Eventually Jos Verlooy saved me. I saw him walking by, I knew I had only two minutes left the find a rider and after a little hesitation he did wanted to do the interview for me. I still remember the camera crew counting down, which seemed weird at the tile, but I was still nervous because I took me so long to find a rider and I was shaking, so I didn't pay much attention to it. At that moment I saw the camera crew whispering to Matt -'are you sure about this?'- but I somehow managed to struggle myself through the interview. Later that evening, Matt told me that I was actually live on Eurosport that time for three million people. The only thing I remember after that, is everything turning black in front of my eyes(laughs hard)".