“I will go full house on Thursday evening,” Femke Bol had promised. And full house she went: to the gold in the 400 meters hurdles, at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Bol reached the finish line in 51.70 seconds, far ahead of her opponents.
Anyone who only saw Bol’s face during the race might think she was on a bicycle. Relaxed, just like the fourteen paces she took between the hurdles in the first part of the race. The 23-year-old athlete adjusted her cadence to have more energy at the end.
After the finish, the joy followed: Bol is world champion for the first time and won the sixth Dutch gold medal at a world athletics championship. Only pole vaulter Rens Blom, sprinter Dafne Schippers and long-distance runner Sifan Hassan preceded her.
‘Super Bonus’
“I have to say that I was a bit scared for the last thirty meters,” Bol said to NOS afterwards. “I thought: okay Fem, keep your shape, keep walking well, it doesn’t matter if someone arrives, do your own thing.” That she only needed 51.70 seconds to finish? “A super bonus.”
Bol’s fall in the 4x400m mixed relay last weekend was a mental hurdle. “This medal also belongs to the relay team. They have supported me so much to recharge myself.”
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