Estafetteteam is also just happy with World Cup silver. ‘We are not every tournament legendary’

Femke Bol saw her teammates again at the finish in the athletics stadium filled to the ridge in Tokyo, as she also saw them at the last right of the Olympic final of the mixed relay in Paris. Again there was an American runner in front of her, again she thought she could still grab her opponent. “I thought: I’m not going to give up for the finish.”

It was just too little this time. Bol ran forward in her final round of fifth place, but she crossed the finish line behind the US with a time of 3.09.96 against 3.08.80 for the Americans. The mixed relay team containing Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver, Jonas Pfijffers and therefore Bol took silver on the 4×400 meters on the opening day of the World Championship Athletics after a race full of tensile and pushing on the Tartan on the 4×400 meters. Belgium finished third behind them.

This way the orange prize cabinet was topped up again. In recent years, the combination of male and female 400 meter runners won Olympic gold (in 2024 in Paris), a silver World Cup medal (in 2022 in Eugene) and a European title Indoor (this spring in Apeldoorn) and the team took a third place at the EK Outdoor (in 2023 in Rome). The world title also seemed to be there in 2023, until Bol fell there in the last meters.

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However, the Dutch athletes did not want to hear anything about disappointment. “The level is just very high and grows every year,” said Klaver after the race. “The fact that we win silver is just really great,” Bol added.

‘Project 400’

The almost normal feeling of success on the relay numbers is the result of ‘Project 400’, an ambitious plan that the athletics union started in 2019 to from Dutch athletes, who with their long and strong limbs are extremely suitable for the round to make the athletics track, the best 400-M-M-Lopers in the world.

Under the leadership of coaches Laurent Meuwly, who had already shown in Switzerland to be able to make medium athletes great relay teams, and Bram Peters created a high-level training group on Papendal, with exceptional talents such as Bol, Klaver and Liemarvin Bonevacia as suppliers.

Meuwly could not see the newest success itself. In the Japanese capital are the training course and the stadium fifteen minutes drive apart, and because other athletes also needed his attention, the Swiss coach did not get it in time. The team didn’t find that very unfortunate. “I think it’s especially a shame for him,” said Bol. “We only see them sitting very vague somewhere.” The team did not run through it, Klaver supplemented.

I hate it when I read about something about ‘Bol & Co’

The two female relay runners have been the two pillars for years on which the mixed and female relay teams are propped up. The spotlights are usually for them, because Bol and Klaver also catch individual prizes and Bol as a final runner often starts a successful catch -up race.

But the men also play an important role for the mixed relay team, their female teammates emphasize in the mixed zone. “I hate it when I read something about ‘Bol & Co’, says Bol, who gets by far the most attention as the face of Dutch athletics. “It is not like that. This is Team Nederland, we all do this, everyone has to do his piece, that is so important.”

For the 22-year-old PFIJFFers the situation was unreal: he walks his first big tournament in Tokyo and immediately took silver in the second World Cup race of his career. Next to him stood Omalla who also has experience with that, after taking the Olympic title in Paris as a debutant. “Jonas really stood his ground in a difficult race today,” said Bol as a true leader. “That is sometimes underestimated.”

He had felt the pressure this morning, Pfijffers said laughing. “I tried to enjoy, but it was just difficult.” He ended up in his round, but managed to stay calm. “It was really a root ball, and you see someone passing by; I wanted to go after it. But I kept doing my own thing and I came close to the last hundred meters.” Then he saw full of silver running. “You can hardly make a better entrance,” said Pfijffers with a big smile on his face.

Revenge for Tokyo 2021

For Bol and Klaver, this medal will also have been a revenge for the fourth place that they reached in the same stadium four years ago, at the 2021 Olympic Games. Up to 100 meters from the finish, Slotloper Angela Ramsey was first, but the Netherlands missed the bronze, which had then been a unique medal at the time.

That is no longer the case, but people should not start thinking that they are now disappointed with this result, Klaver said. “We feel that celebrating and not our staff.” They may not celebrate it exuberantly – on the track it stayed with a few group cuddles – but the mood was great, said Klaver. “Yes, we are happy.”

That bulb with her long, flexible steps at the last straight end came so close to the American, only underlines how good the team is and she is. “This final of Paris is seen by everyone as legendary, and we do our best to get as close as possible every time,” said Bol. “But we are not every tournament legendary.”

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