Golden end of the most successful World Cup in Dutch athletics history

It was a dream ending to the World Athletics Championships: Femke Bol’s long strides turned a bronze medal into a gold medal in the women’s 4×400 meter relay, in a final in which defending champion United States was missing after a disqualification in the series. In an almost unbelievable way, Bol sailed past two competitors in the last 50 meters on Sunday evening, a British and a Jamaican, and she narrowly crossed the finish line first. “On the last part I thought: I got it. We end up as world champions”, Bol said excitedly against NOSsurrounded by teammates Eveline Saalberg, Lieke Klaver and Cathelijn Peeters.

This is how the World Cup, with this last golden relay success on the final day, ended as the most successful in Dutch athletics history. With five medals – two gold, one silver, two bronze – the Netherlands finished eighth in the final standings.

But it could have ended even more gloriously if Bol, and before her Sifan Hassan, hadn’t fallen in nearly identical ways. A look back at those much-discussed crashes and more memorable World Cup events.

Fallen, but ‘no one is dead’

Saturday evening, August 19, Sifan Hassan is on track for a medal in the 10,000 meters, the distance in which she became Olympic champion in Tokyo. Only the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay, with whom she starts a final sprint, can keep her from the gold.

And then it happens. Hassan falls, three meters from the finish, possibly because she hit Tsegay. Gone medal.

Shortly after the race, Hassan, although also “sad”, looks back on her fall quite soberly. “There is nothing we can do about it, and it can always be worse: no one is dead.”

Femke Bol, Lieke Klaver, Liemarvin Bonevacia and Isaya Klein Ikkink see it happen. Not long after that they have to go for the final of the 4×400 meters with the mixed relay team.

Bol starts last, in the lead. And then, in almost the same place as Hassan, she too falls. She got distracted, she later said. Bol quickly gets up, but her final third place doesn’t count: she left her baton on the ground.

It was just a lot of bad luck, recalls former athlete and TV analyst Gregory Sedoc. Falling just before the finish sometimes happens. But twice in a row, while the gold is within reach? “It will go down in the history books.” With two extra gold medals, the Netherlands had finished third in the country ranking, after the United States and Canada.

Femke Bol’s first World Cup gold

“People think I’m a machine, but I’m now showing that I’m not,” Femke Bol said to NOS shortly after her fall in the relay.

But a few days later, during the final of the 400 meters hurdles on Thursday in Budapest, she did exactly what was expected of her. She became world champion – by force majeure – in 51.70 seconds.

It is her first world title, making her one of four Dutch athletes with a gold World Cup medal (alongside pole vaulter Rens Blom, sprinter Dafne Schippers and Hassan).

Bol was the favourite, especially after the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympic champion, the American Sydney McLaughlin. But, says Sedoc, that doesn’t make such a race any easier. “Then just try to make it happen. That’s not ABC. Femke has now shown under pressure that she can do this.”

She still found the final part of the race exciting, says Bol to the NOS. “I was the last thirty [meter] a bit scared.” The fall on the relay was still in her head. “I thought: okay Fem, keep your form. Just keep walking.”

The gold medal is also for the mixed relay team, Bol says afterwards: “They supported me so much to be able to recharge me.”

Sifan Hassan is also recovering

That Sifan Hassan can do almost anything was once again underlined when she won her very first marathon ever, in London, in April this year.

Still, she came to Budapest with little confidence, where she would run the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, Hassan said Sunday night against Eurosport. After London she hadn’t trained for quite some time and she didn’t feel in shape.

Nevertheless, Hassan went home with two World Cup medals: bronze in the 1,500 meters, silver in the 5,000 meters. And then there was that near-medal, in the 10,000 meters. A “great” achievement, says Sedoc. Especially after that fall.

“This World Cup has taught me something,” Hassan told Eurosport. She felt herself growing in the tournament. “Each race was better than the one before and the one before that.” Next year, Hassan says, hopefully she will be even stronger.

Then the Paris Olympics. Hassan – who surpassed Dafne Schippers as the most decorated Dutch athlete at a world championship – is thinking about also running the marathon in the French capital, but whether she will also combine it with numbers on the track is still unclear.

The women took the medals, but the Netherlands did have a male finalist again

And then there was also Anouk Vetter, who fought for bronze in the heptathlon. An achievement that may have been a little underexposed because of the guns Hassan and Bol.

For a long time, Vetter thought she had no chance in Budapest, but a javelin throw of 59.57 meters saved her match. “I wanted it so badly” she said afterwards with tears in the eyes.

And so all Dutch medals in Budapest were brought in by female athletes.

One of the men’s contenders, marathon runner Abdi Nageeye, gave up after more than 25 kilometers on Sunday. The Tokyo silver medalist suffered from “balloon legs”.

The bright spot for the men was the handsome final place of eighteen-year-old Niels Laros in the 1,500 meters. He was the first Dutch man in a World Cup final on a running number since 2013. European youth champion Laros, widely regarded as a super talent, finished tenth.

The medal record

As said: the Netherlands has never won so many World Cup medals. And that means Dutch athletics, with a view to the upcoming Summer Games, is in a good position, thinks Gregory Sedoc.

During the Games in Tokyo, the Dutch team won no fewer than eight medals. But technical director Vincent Kortbeek of the Athletics Union was not tempted in Budapest to make statements about an even higher possible yield in Paris. “It is unrealistic to say that you always have to do better than at the previous Olympic Games. Certainly not in a global sport as large as athletics,” he told NOS .

You can see the amount of World Cup medals as a confirmation of the top sports policy of the Athletics Union at Papendal, says Sedoc. In recent years, both top coaches and top talents have been recruited. Numbers such as the 400 meters also received extra attention. This was followed by several successes, including the gold relay medal at this World Cup.

Don’t forget Lieke Klaver with that performance, says Sedoc. “In a team you need captains. Of course we don’t want to forget Saalberg and Peeters, but Bol and Klaver are the captains. People who say: fuck itwe’re just going to pop.”

And, says Sedoc, take a look at Klaver’s race, who was also in the individual final of the 400 meters in Budapest (she finished sixth). It may have been less noticeable because of Bol’s impressive final sprint, but in the relay Klaver – calculated by a staff member of the Dutch team – was faster than her teammate: 48.74 to 48.80.