She didn’t have this yet. Femke Bol made a few jumps of joy on the athletics track of the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. She almost knocked over a long jumper in ecstasy, she shouted into the microphone: “This is a dream come true!” She won another world title, this time in the 400 meters and that in a new world record: 49.17.
Femke Bol’s trophy cabinet is now starting to take on impressive proportions now that she won another gold medal on Saturday evening. After European titles (400 meters and 400 meters hurdles), world titles in the outdoors (400 meters hurdles and 4×400 meters relay), after the World Cup silver two years ago, there is now gold in the 400 meters indoors. And she previously set two world records in this event.
Bol had come to Scotland as the title favorite, after she had improved her own world record in the 400 meters to 49.24 at the National Championships in Apeldoorn last month. She felt it was her duty to win here, she said after the race. But at the press conference last Thursday, she kept quiet about how important this title would be for her. “We chose to be here, so it is important,” she said. But: “I didn’t train specifically for it.”
The big goal will soon be in Paris, that is no secret. Bol wants to become Olympic champion in the 400 meter hurdles there in August. “I’m starting to miss my hurdles,” she laughed on Thursday. Because this discipline is not run on the 200 meter tracks in the winter, she maintains her form in those months with 400 meter competitions.
Serious championship
Yet that is not the whole story. Bol has often indicated how important she finds medals, especially gold medals are higher in the pecking order for her than, for example, a world record. You win a title forever, she believes, and they will never take it away from you.
Her actions showed how seriously Bol took these world championships. In order to recover optimally between the preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals, she followed a meticulous schedule from which she wanted to deviate as little as possible. For the interested press, she had two 55-second times until the final; the first time her afternoon nap was waiting, the second time she wanted to catch the bus so she could quickly take an ice bath.
If you have to walk so often in a short period of time, saving energy is important, Bol explained her actions. “To be honest, I find walking twice in one day quite difficult.” And she prefers not to do that in the race, but outside of it. “If you do it during the race, it can give you a bad feeling, I’ve had that before. So during the match you just have to do your thing, outside of it you have to save time: quickly through the mixed zone, don’t warm up for too long, recover quickly.”
Additional tax
Many other athletes avoid indoor competitions for fear of injury. Particularly for the athletes participating in the running events, the tighter turns of the 200 meter track place an extra strain on the leg muscles. Scot Josh Kerr, who became world champion in the 3,000 meters on Saturday, said on Thursday how difficult the decision had been whether or not to participate. “My coaches didn’t think it was a good idea because of the risk of injuries, but I really wanted to run here in front of my home crowd.”
Such considerations do not play a role for Bol. “If I was afraid of injuries, I wouldn’t do indoors.” In fact, she actually thinks it’s not too bad how risky indoor athletics is. “The hurdles are a bit more dangerous.”
There was no fear for Bol on Saturday evening: she took off like crazy from the start and overtook Lieke Klaver, who is known for her fast starts, in the second corner. This was her plan, she would say afterwards. Start hard and then just keep going and see where the ship ends up. “I don’t think it was even my best race,” she said. Yet no woman has ever been faster indoors.
That realization made Bol very happy afterwards. “This one belongs in the list with all the other gold medals I have won. This is my world record medal.” The fact that Lieke Klaver took silver, her first individual World Cup medal, only made it even better for Bol. After the finish, the Dutch athletes giggled together on a bench next to a scoreboard that showed Bol’s world record time.
“I now have almost all of them, that is super special,” said Bol happily before she had to go to the medal ceremony. There is still one missing and for that she will soon go to Paris: for a new title in her trophy case, an Olympic one.