After Femke Bol bettered her personal world document to win the 400m in a dominant show of gun-to-tape working finally weekend’s World Athletics Indoor championships, she stated, “Final 12 months I ran a world document and now I’ve finished it once more. Isn’t it adequate but?”
There is no such thing as a doubt 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 “adequate”. It’s simply that she occurs to be chasing Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, broadly considered the best 400m hurdler of all time, and so Bol by no means fairly is aware of if she is “adequate”.
Coping with actuality
As Bol as soon as stated of her pursuit of McLaughlin-Levrone, “In fact, you wish to be the very best, however it’s cool to have the ability to race Sydney, the very best ever, and check out someday to beat that individual — maybe by no means. Maybe I will probably be second on the world stage my entire profession, however I’m coaching to not be.”
Simply 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 12 months in McLaughlin-Levrone’s absence. On the similar occasion, she additionally anchored the Netherlands workforce within 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 within 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. | Picture credit score: Getty Photos
However the 24-year-old has not crushed McLaughlin-Levrone within the 400m hurdles, ending behind the American at each the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 World Championships. Whereas 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 loopy,” Bol stated. “Sydney was to date in entrance on the finish, I used to be nearly doubting if I actually had a very good race. Then, I noticed the time and I believed, ‘Wow, that explains so much.’” The time was 50.68 seconds, the one ever occasion of a girl going below 51 seconds within the 400m hurdles — it’s the benchmark the Dutch athlete has been working in direction of ever since.
Bol has acquired inside vary. She is the second-fastest girl ever within the 400m hurdles, her 51.45 seconds finally 12 months’s London Athletics meet bettered solely by McLaughlin-Levrone, who, along with the world document, additionally ran a 51.41 on the USATF Championships in 2022.
Sending a message
It’s on this context that Bol’s current indoor world document in Glasgow assumes significance. The specialist hurdler sought a pre-Paris Video 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 together with her upright working gait and lengthy stride, the 6’0” Bol bettered her personal indoor 400m world document to 49.17 seconds and, for good measure, added the 4x400m indoor gold to her burgeoning medal assortment with an attention-grabbing anchor leg.
“I all the time run with my coronary heart, I see what my legs give me [that day],” she stated. “With two races within the legs it’s one thing to really feel additional happy with. That is nice as a result of I’ve not finished hurdles for 4 weeks and it provides me confidence. [But] I’m lacking the hurdles.”
Bol can now flip her focus to the 400m hurdles and a possible showdown with McLaughlin-Levrone in Paris, safe within the data that she is a much better athlete — each mentally and technically — than she was when she final ran towards the American.
The development in mentality was precipitated by a heartbreaking incident on the World Championships final 12 months; the development of approach was born from a dangerous determination to restructure a basic side of her technique, the stride sample.
When Bol tumbled and fell, with the end line steps away, within the combined 4x400m relay at Budapest final 12 months, she was distraught. Pressured to recuperate 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 strain.
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 large stage (McLaughlin-Levrone had skipped her title defence to deal with the 400m earlier than pulling out with an damage).
“It gave me fireplace,” she informed Citius Magazine about her fall. “And it additionally gave me a little bit of scared feelings. However I might deal with it, [telling myself]: ‘You’ve had such a very good 12 months. You’re so sturdy. You’re not gonna let one actually, actually dangerous second screw up this entire match.’”
Reinventing her technique
Bol’s braveness was additionally evident in her determination 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 he or she felt that the tactic 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. | Picture credit score: Getty Photos
“She had run her finest time in Tokyo,” Meuwly informed Athletics Weekly final 12 months, of Bol’s bronze-clinching 52.03 on the Olympics. “She [got] higher bodily [after that] however couldn’t enhance her time. We each realised we have been on the finish of this idea with the 15 steps.”
Bol determined to emulate McLaughlin-Levrone’s stride-pattern, maybe reasoning that if it’s a must to catch the GOAT, you need to first run like her. The brand 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 extra and altered to having a extra cruising method of working the primary 200m, with longer strides. It’s a few 12cm distinction in stride size,” Meuwly informed Athletics Weekly.
“After which to alter after seven hurdles to go to fifteen — that was one thing utterly totally different. However, in a short time, she realised in coaching that this was the course to go in. [With] large modifications, it’s good to adapt in a really quick time to remain aggressive at that degree. That’s the most troublesome.”
However Bol has managed the change and emerged sooner. However is it quick sufficient to beat McLaughlin-Levrone? “It’ll be onerous to compete together with her, however I hope to be shut,” Bol stated after her profitable outing in Glasgow just lately. “Hopefully she’s going to carry the very best out of me. It’s all the time wonderful to race with Sydney as a result of she is the all time in hurdles. I like to race, I like to compete towards the very best. My physique is telling me to do that.”
