With a "nearly perfect" run, Femke Bol improved the indoor world record over 400 meters. At the Dutch championships, the 22-year-old beat a 41-year-old record. At the European Championships in Munich in the summer, Bol rose to become a superstar.
Femke Bol captivated the audience at the European Athletics Championships in Munich in August, and now the 22-year-old has reached the next milestone in her impressive career. At the Dutch Championships, Bol improved the indoor world record over 400 meters by a remarkable 0.33 seconds. The record over the two indoor laps has been 49.59 seconds since the spring of 1982, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova from what was then Czechoslovakia.
After 41 years, Bol breaks through this apparently insurmountable wall and storms the finish line in Apeldoorn after 49.26 seconds. Kratochvilova also holds the world record in the open air over 800 meters (1:53.28 minutes), over 400 meters (47.99 seconds) was only GDR athlete Marita Koch (47.60) ever faster in a time that was considered a high phase of doping applies. Kratochvilova once said that she was given regular injections, but allegedly only with vitamins. According to doping researchers, Koch received anabolic steroids for years, but has denied this ever since.
Four decades have passed since the Koch/Kratochvilova era, and today Bol says after her fabulous time: "I was hoping for a 49.5, but 49.26? I really have no words for it." The long sprinter with the feather-light but powerful step describes the run as "almost perfect", which also earned her the title of Dutch indoor champion.
"It's my first world record on a real track," she says, referring to the records she set last year in the open air over 300 meters hurdles (36.13 seconds) and this winter over 500 meters indoors (1:05.63 seconds) had set up. Both distances are not run at all in championships and are also run comparatively rarely in other respects.
In August 2022, Bol was not the most successful participant in these title fights at the European Championships in Munich with three gold medals, but also finally became the superstar in athletics. Over her regular distance, the 400 meter hurdles, she won the final in a new championship record of 52.67 seconds and distanced the competition by a massive 1.6 seconds. Before that, she had caused a stir on the stadium lap without hurdles, improved the Dutch national record to 49.44 seconds and thus also won the European Championship title. Bol's third gold was in the 4x400m relay, when she stormed to first place with an irresistible final loop - again a Dutch record.
With her world record run from Apeldoorn, the 22-year-old also managed an extraordinary feat: her best time indoors (49.26) is now better than her best time outdoors (49.44). The 400 meters in the hall are usually a bit slower because the narrow 200-meter circuits are more demanding to run and the athletes do not run the entire distance in their lane, but after 150 meters on the inside lane and thus in a direct duel go.
Bol, who celebrates her 23rd birthday next week, was only the fourth woman to break the 50-second mark under the roof of the hall in Metz, France, in 49.96 seconds last weekend. In Apeldoorn she wondered if it could be even faster than the 49.26 seconds she had just achieved. The opportunity to do so will be available in two weeks' time in Istanbul at the European Indoor Championships, which are to be held in the Turkish metropolis despite the devastating earthquake. It cannot be ruled out that Femke Bol will once again sprint meters away from the competition there.
