by Alfonz Juck
Femke Bol, the current World Outdoor Champ at 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay, as well as the current 400m indoor WAC and 4x400m WAC, is racing in the Caribbean before the World Relays, which will be held this coming weekend, May 5, in the Bahamas.
The issue is this.
One of the most tremendous competitions in 2024 could be wherever Femke Bol and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are. In the 400m hurdles, it is pretty sure one of them will win. In the 400m flat, Marleidys Paulino, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, and Said Ewa Naser are back in the competition following a whereabouts ban; the run to 400-meter gold gets very crowded.
Ato Boldon, NBC announcer, claims Sydney will run the 400m flat in Paris, citing that she has all in the 400m hurdles. Femke Bol and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone may not battle until the 4x400m relay!
The relays this weekend at the World Relays Bahamas 2024 will be fascinating on May 5, 2024!
Femke Bol in the 100 m and 150 m
WILLEMSTAD (AHO, Apr 28): The 2023 European Athlete of the Year, Femke Bol, opened her outdoor season at the Competition Curacao clocking 11.47 (-0.3) in the 100m – finishing third behind the Swiss winner Sarah Atcho (11.28) and 17.10 (-0.9) in the 150m – also third, behind Lieke Klaver who won in 16.96 and also topped her 100m heat in 11.33 (-0.1). The meeting was the pre-World Relays test for Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Ukrainian athletes. Netherlands clocked 38.30 in the 4x100m relay over Belgium (38.68 NR), and Switzerland topped the women’s relay in 42.91 ahead of Belgium (43.30) and the Netherlands (43.36).
There were also fast 400m races for Oleksandr Pohorilko, who improved the NR for Ukraine to 44.94 over Liemarvin Bonevacia (45.21), and for Netherlands’s Cathelijn Peeters, who improved her PB massively to 51.08 ahead of Naomi Van Den Broeck from Belgium (51.62). Dutch sprinters topped the men’s 100m, Hensey Paulina in 10.25 (-0.7) and Churandy Martina at 10.36 (-0.2) in another heat, competing on his home island for the first time in 19 years. Other wins for the Netherlands by Eugene Omalla in the 300m (32.68) and Taymir Burnet at 15.28 (-0.5) in the 150m, while Belgium’s Helena Ponette topped the women’s 300m (37.28).
