by Larry Eder
Femke Bol is not even twenty-three and she has had a drawer full of medals, in the last year alone. At the World Indoors, Femke took silver in the 400m and gold in the 4x400m, then, silver at the 400m hurdles and silver at the Mixed 400m in the World Outdoors, and finally, in August 2022, Femke took gold in the 400 meters flat, took gold in her specialty, the 400m hurdles and gold in the 4×400 meters. And that did not count the Olympic bronze from 2021 in Tokyo!
World Athletics Championships
Eugene, Oregon, USA
July15-26, 2022
400m hurdles, Bol, Netherlands, photo by Kevin Morris
On Saturday, February 3, 2023, Femke is debuting indoors in North America at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. The NB Indoor GP, now in its 27th year, will be held on the New Balance campus at THE TRACK at Brighton Landing. As Femke Bol is one of the stars of European athletics and one of the stars of the 40-odd NB Team Europe that Head of NB Sports Marketing Europe, Peter Riley, brought to Boston this chilly weekend, Femke will be watched by the 5000-person audience (a sell-out once again) as she races over 500 meters.
“It is one under meters longer than I normally race, ” said an effusive Femke Bol. When Femke was asked about the hardest event in your European championships performances, she did not hesitate, “the 400m hurdles, as I did not want to have a problem there, I was the favorite.” Femke takes the pressure on her, in her own country, The Netherlands, good-naturedly. It is obvious that she loves what she does, and she handled the presser with the North American media very well.
Her hurdling is quite good, and she does better as she gets along in the race, usually passing people in the last three hurdles. She is very precise in her pace and has a veteran’s self-knowledge of where she is on the track.
The case in point is the women’s 500 meters, a distance that is two and one-half laps on the very fast Beynon surface at THE TRACK. When emcee Geoff Wightman, who knows a thing or two about the sport of athletics, pressed Femke Bol on whether she knew the splits at 200m and 400m that she needed to achieve the world record for the women’s 500 meters indoors, Femke Bol answered in the affirmative but did not offer those splits. She smiled and kept them in her head.
Femke Bol gave RunBlogRun an interview at the NB Presser, special thanks to Sandra Nels, the communications manager for Global Athletics. The interview lasted just over five minutes and we have posted it here, we hope that you enjoy it.
Our feeling is that Femke Bol is one of the most talented athletes in our sport, and is overshadowed by the incomparable Sydney McLaughlin. We think that Femke Bol’s day is coming.
Video of Femke Bo, recorded on February 3, 2023, by Star Gazer Pix
