DUTCH SUPERSTAR Femke Bol now knows who her three American rivals are going to be in her bid to defend her 400H crown in Tokyo next month.
And, as she and the rest of the world now knows, they don’t include 2-time OG winner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
The WR-holder chose not to enter the USATF Champs in her premier event and, after winning the 400 in Eugene, confirmed she wouldn’t chase the possibility of a DL Wild Card either.
“It’s a bit of a disappointment. It’s a shame,” commented Bol to Dutch TV the weekend before last after finishing 2nd to her friend and relay teammate Lieke Klaver in the Dutch national champs over 200 in 22.84, just 0.2 off her PR.
“As a track & field enthusiast, I think it’s great that she [McLaughlin-Levrone] is going to do the 400 but it’s also a bummer because as an athlete, I really enjoy running against her. It just hasn’t happened very often.
She added,“It’s always unique to compete against her. I love it, even though there’s a very good chance I’ll finish 2nd.” Bol has never beaten McLaughlin-Levrone in their three head-to-head encounters, which ended with the American taking gold at the ’21 and ’24 Olympics as well as the ’22 World Champs.
Wearing the stars and stripes in the Tokyo 400H instead — and allowing Bol to breathe a slight sigh of relief — will be ’16 OG and ’19 WC gold medalist Dalilah Muhammad as well as Anna Cockrell and Jasmine Jones, who were 2nd and 4th in Paris last summer with Bol sandwiched between the American pair as she claimed the bronze.
It’s a top-class trio but Bol will still arrive in the Japanese capital as favorite with, at the time of writing, the four fastest times of the summer out of the Tokyo-bound competitors topped by her list-leading 51.95 in Monaco on July 11. That lap over hurdles brought her home more than a half-a-second clear of both Muhammad and Cockrell.
“I think I should have run even faster in Monaco, but I didn’t run the second bend so good,” reflected Bol when Track & Field News spoke to her at the London Diamond League meeting just over a week later.
London itself was her last race before she effectively embarked on a block of a month’s training. Now she is set to reemerge at the Budapest CT meet (István Gyulai Memorial) on August 12.
Bol’s race in the British capital left her with mixed feelings despite clocking 52.10, the second-fastest time of the year so far and in damp conditions with a sodden track underfoot.
“I had hoped to do better here [in London],” she assessed on the day. “I think I executed the second bend better here than Monaco, but other elements were a little less good, so it is a bit disappointing.
“The weather was actually not the problem today; it was on me. Now I am going back into training, this is the end of the first block, so we can go back and review how things have gone and be ready for that next block which leads into Tokyo.”
Bol’s outings in Monaco and London were the part of a momentous July for the flying Dutchwoman which started with the announcement of her engagement to her long-time partner, the Belgian pole vaulter Ben Broeders.
“I’m a very emotional person, and if a training session goes badly, I might fall apart for half a day, and I bring it all to him. He’s caring, sweet, social, very calm, and patient. His personality alone makes me feel calm, just being with him helps.”
However, the timing of the announcement in the middle of the season came as something of a surprise to many, not least Bol herself.
“I think Ben wanted to surprise me and I was certainly surprised, even though I had an idea it might happen sometime around then. It brings me a lot of positive energy and it’s really exciting.”
The one thing she didn’t reveal was a date for the nuptials, but only because the couple don’t know themselves yet.
Preparations will start in earnest post-Tokyo, hopefully with a $70,000 first-prize check to offset the wedding expenses.
Bol, by her own admission, has been able to bring her A-game to every major championship in the last 4 years because she’s stayed more-or-less healthy ever since she was a Junior, winning the European U20 title in 2019 and going on that year to make the ’19 WC semis as a teenager.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been lucky. I mean, there are always small injuries, but I think I’ve had them ‘timed’ relatively good.
“And yeah, it’s also something I really work on. My recovery is really important with my team. We work on getting stronger each year during the buildup to the season. I often do one extra hour at the track to work on small things, to avoid any small problems getting worse.
“Every year you have some pain; it is either your hips or your hamstring. Next year I’ll be also putting extra things into my program to work on almost every day so I can get stronger at them. I think this already is helping me a lot along with always putting my recovery first.”
Bol will not commit at this stage to whether she will also do the relays in Tokyo.
“As always, it’ll be a last-minute decision. We’ll talk with the coaches, talk with the team, and then we’ll decide,” said Bol in London, her standard but very understandable answer.
However, if there are no fitness issues, don’t be surprised if she anchors both the Dutch teams in the mixed 4×4 and women’s 4×4 finals just like she did in Budapest and Tokyo — assuming the relays squads reach the medal rounds.
In Budapest, she had the trauma of stumbling with the line in sight and the mixed title in her grasp but bounced back to take the hurdles gold and brought the Netherlands home victorious in the women’s long relay.
At Tokyo ’21, Bol earned silver in the women’s 4×4 (as Team USA took gold) and her bronze over the barriers.
The timetable in Tokyo this time is sympathetic to her ambitions of climbing the podium three times.
The mixed relay, heats and final are on the opening day and then the 400H heats are on the third before the curtain comes down on the champs with the women’s 4×4 as the penultimate event on the program. This allows Bol a hypothetical 2-days rest between her hurdles final and the relay.
“My favorite event will always be the 400-meter hurdles but the relays are also very special,” said Bol, who became an integral part of Dutch baton teams back in 2019 while still a teenager and has been the acknowledged anchor leg runner for her nation ever since she was moved into that position at the ’21 OG.
Tokyo holds a special place in Bol’s heart as it was there, in very different Covid-constrained circumstances, that she cemented her breakthrough of earlier that summer with a European Record of 52.03, improving the mark and former WR of Russia’s Yuliya Pechonkina, whose 52.34 had stood since ’03.
The Japanese capital may also be where Bol and McLaughlin-Levrone stand side-by-side albeit for the first time this year, waiting for an incoming runner with a baton in their hands.
In Paris, McLaughlin-Levrone ran the second leg in the women’s 4×4 as the U.S. quartet sped to a 3:15.27 AR. Bol brought home the Netherlands in 2nd place more than 4 seconds in arrears.
However, if McLaughlin-Levrone were to be switched to the anchor leg, which is a distinct possibility, their duel could provide a fitting finale to the World Champs.
