It was dubbed Scotland’s ‘Tremendous Saturday’ but it surely wasn’t all concerning the British heroes like Josh Kerr and Molly Caudery. Femke Bol saved her finest for the ladies’s 400m ultimate at these World Indoor Championships and improved her world report to 49.17 seconds.
It was a efficiency that oozed managed energy and which should certainly make her 400m hurdles rivals just a little twitchy forward of this Olympic summer season. The 24-year-old from the Netherlands has clearly wintered nicely and is definitely on target to convey her 400m hurdles finest – and European report – of 51.45 down later this yr.
“It was superb. It was such a robust race, I knew I needed to exit quick,” she stated. “My coach stated to me: ‘You possibly can run quicker’ however to be trustworthy I simply needed to win. That is nice as a result of I’ve not carried out hurdles for 4 weeks and it offers me confidence.”
Bol first broke the world indoor 400m report when she took down Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1982 mark of 49.59 final yr with 49.26. She ran 49.24 on the Dutch Championships final month and has now gone even faster.
It was a case of ‘double Dutch’ in Glasgow, too, as Bol was chased house by coaching companion Lieke Klaver, who clocked 50.16 forward of Alexis Holmes of the USA, who ran a PB of fifty.24 in third.
Laviai Nielsen of Britain excelled as nicely with a PB of fifty.89 in fourth. The British champion’s earlier finest was 51.11 however this newest run places her No.5 on the UK all-time rankings.
Bol flew via 200m in 23.61 with Klaver boldly simply 5 hundredths of a second behind. At 300m Bol clocked 36.06 and was starting to tug away, extending her lead within the house straight.
“It means so much to get this medal,” Klaver stated. “I had deliberate it in my head however you continue to should ship. I’ve simply completed my research and now to win this silver is nice. I like indoors.”
Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver (Getty)
Nielsen stated: “I’ve by no means been in a world report race earlier than, other than relays. It’s so quick, I couldn’t consider how shut I used to be to them on the break. I’m so pleased with the best way I ran that race. I knew from lane two that everybody can be coming in and I needed to carry that inside line.
“I did so nicely to try to keep as shut as I might with them. Earlier than this champs I had by no means raced Femke Bol, though my sister has over the hurdles. It’s simply superb to be within the combine with a world-class athlete like that. She is an unbelievable, unbelievable athlete and to solely end just a few locations behind bodes very well for my summer season.
“I’m very hungry now. I believe it’s 3 times I’ve completed fourth however that’s the least painful fourth place. I don’t assume I might have run quicker than that. I gave it the whole lot.”
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