After Femke Bol bettered her personal world file to win the 400m in a dominant show of gun-to-tape working finally weekend’s World Athletics Indoor championships, she stated, “Last year I ran a world record and now I’ve done it again. Isn’t it good enough yet?”
There is little question that Bol is an elite athlete — ordinarily, her world-beating achievements, in each the 400m flat and her favorite occasion, the 400m hurdles, are considerably higher than “good enough”. It’s simply that she occurs to be chasing Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, broadly thought to be the best 400m hurdler of all time, and so Bol by no means fairly is aware of if she is “good enough”.
Dealing with actuality
As Bol as soon as stated of her pursuit of McLaughlin-Levrone, “Of course, you want to be the best, but it’s cool to be able to race Sydney, the best ever, and try one day to beat that person — perhaps never. Perhaps I will be second on the world stage my whole career, but I’m training not to be.”
Just to be clear, Bol has already gained a number of main gold medals.
She is the reigning 400m hurdles world champion, successful simply in Budapest final yr in McLaughlin-Levrone’s absence. At the identical occasion, she additionally anchored the Netherlands group in the 4x400m relay for her second Worlds gold.
Bol accomplished a shocking European double in 2022, successful the 400m flat earlier than dominating the 400m hurdles. She additionally has three Diamond League crowns in the 400m hurdles.
Potential energy shift: Bol has progressed since her losses to McLaughlin-Levrone on the Olympics and World Championships, and hopes to run the American shut the subsequent time they meet. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
But the 24-year-old has not overwhelmed McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles, ending behind the American at each the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 World Championships. While the Olympic bronze was an encouraging end result for a 21-year-old Bol — each McLaughlin-Levrone and Dalilah Muhammad have been extra superior athletes at that stage — the 2022 Worlds silver was deflating. Bol beat her idol Muhammad (bronze), however was trounced by 1.59 seconds!
“It was crazy,” Bol stated. “Sydney was so far in front at the end, I was almost doubting if I really had a good race. Then, I saw the time and I thought, ‘Wow, that explains a lot.’” The time was 50.68 seconds, the one ever occasion of a lady going underneath 51 seconds in the 400m hurdles — it’s the benchmark the Dutch athlete has been working in direction of ever since.
Bol has received inside vary. She is the second-fastest girl ever in the 400m hurdles, her 51.45 seconds finally yr’s London Athletics meet bettered solely by McLaughlin-Levrone, who, in addition to the world file, additionally ran a 51.41 on the USATF Championships in 2022.
Sending a message
It is in this context that Bol’s latest indoor world file in Glasgow assumes significance. The specialist hurdler sought a pre-Paris Games exercise over the 400m flat and ended up sending a warning to hurdles rivals, McLaughlin-Levrone included, for this summer time’s Olympics.
Unmistakable with her upright working gait and lengthy stride, the 6’0” Bol bettered her personal indoor 400m world file to 49.17 seconds and, for good measure, added the 4x400m indoor gold to her burgeoning medal assortment with an eye catching anchor leg.
“I always run with my heart, I see what my legs give me [that day],” she stated. “With two races in the legs it’s something to feel extra proud of. This is great because I’ve not done hurdles for four weeks and it gives me confidence. [But] I am missing the hurdles.”
Bol can now flip her focus to the 400m hurdles and a possible showdown with McLaughlin-Levrone in Paris, safe in the information that she is a much better athlete — each mentally and technically — than she was when she final ran in opposition to the American.
The enchancment in mentality was precipitated by a heartbreaking incident on the World Championships final yr; the development of approach was born from a dangerous choice to restructure a elementary facet of her technique, the stride sample.
When Bol tumbled and fell, with the end line steps away, in the blended 4x400m relay at Budapest final yr, she was distraught. Forced to get well shortly as a result of she nonetheless had the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay to run on the meet, she rose to satisfy the stress.
Bol stormed to gold in each occasions, displaying that she might bounce again from adversity and deal with the stress of being the favorite on the massive stage (McLaughlin-Levrone had skipped her title defence to deal with the 400m earlier than pulling out with an harm).
“It gave me fire,” she informed Citius Mag about her fall. “And it also gave me a bit of scared emotions. But I could handle it, [telling myself]: ‘You’ve had such a good year. You’re so strong. You’re not gonna let one really, really bad moment screw up this whole tournament.’”
Reinventing her technique
Bol’s braveness was additionally evident in her choice to rewire her stride sample, forcing her, in impact, to relearn her speciality. Bol had run with 15 strides between hurdles, however each her coach, Laurent Meuwly, and she or he felt that the strategy had hit its ceiling.
Plotting a revolution: Bol has labored with coach Laurent Meuwly to rework her stride sample as a result of each felt her outdated technique had hit its ceiling. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
“She had run her best time in Tokyo,” Meuwly informed Athletics Weekly final yr, of Bol’s bronze-clinching 52.03 on the Olympics. “She [got] better physically [after that] but couldn’t improve her time. We both realised we were at the end of this concept with the 15 steps.”
Bol determined to emulate McLaughlin-Levrone’s stride-pattern, maybe reasoning that if you must catch the GOAT, you could first run like her. The new technique entailed 14 strides between the primary seven hurdles after which 15 between the ultimate three to maximise her ending pace.
“Progressively we pushed her stride a bit more and changed to having a more cruising way of running the first 200m, with longer strides. It’s about a 12cm difference in stride length,” Meuwly informed Athletics Weekly.
“And then to change after seven hurdles to go to 15 — that was something completely different. But, very quickly, she realised in training that this was the direction to go in. [With] big changes, you need to adapt in a very short time to stay competitive at that level. That is the most difficult.”
But Bol has managed the change and emerged quicker. But is it quick sufficient to beat McLaughlin-Levrone? “It’ll be hard to compete with her, but I hope to be close,” Bol stated after her profitable outing in Glasgow lately. “Hopefully she will bring the best out of me. It’s always amazing to race with Sydney because she is the best-ever in hurdles. I love to race, I love to compete against the best. My body is telling me to do this.”
