He holds the European record in the 4 × 100 m freestyle Short Course together with Bas van Velthoven, Mitja Zastrow and Robin van Aggele in 3:09.18[2] swum during the World SC Championships 2008 in Manchester they finished second in this event behind the United States who swam a world record in the same race.

Lijesen made his international senior debut at the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championships in Shanghai with the 23rd place in the 100 m freestyle.

He was part of the team that broke the European record in the 4 × 100 m freestyle (SC) at the 2008 FINA Short Course World Championships alongside Bas van Velthoven, Mitja Zastrow and Robin van Aggele winning a silver medal doing so.

With the 4 × 100 m medley relay he reached an 8th place together with Bastiaan Tamminga, van Aggele and Joeri Verlinden swimming a new national record.

A few weeks before at the 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven he won the bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle, where he split faster than Pieter van den Hoogenband who was later revealed suffered from the flu.