Femke Bol impresses at FBK Games and wins 400 meters hurdles | Sport

sport">Ukraine’s Anna Rizhikova finished second in 55.62 within a street length of the race. Britain’s Jessie Knight was third in 55.81. Last week in Ostrava, Bol was already exceptionally fast on the unmarketable 300 meter hurdles. With a time of 36.86 seconds she took almost 1.5 seconds off the world record at this distance.

sport">The 22-year-old athlete from Amersfoort was chosen to conclude the international athletics meeting in Hengelo from the Continental Tour Gold. It had been threatening in Twente all day, but when Bol skimmed over the hurdles, it only started to rain properly. “I had searched all the weather sites in advance that said it would not rain, but unfortunately. It didn’t make me happy and it probably also affected my time, but we’re not made of sugar, we say,” said Bol after her race.

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sport">“I wasn’t very busy with my time either,” she continued. “I have to get there in my first race over 400 meters hurdles, I know that. And it was especially difficult in these circumstances. I thought I walked quite easily, but those last 100 meters were tough. I never train the full distance, so I only feel how those last hurdles go in the game. This race wasn’t perfect, but I’m glad I ran my first race under 54 seconds. It was also a meeting record, so that’s extra fun.”

sport">Bol had admired the time of American Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin, who ran 51.61 on Sunday in her first race of the year over 400 hurdles, a fraction above her world record. “It’s very special that she can do that. I need more races to go faster. I look up to it and get motivation from it. Unfortunately, I don’t see her enough in competitions, because I run at my best when I go into the last 100 meters with the strongest athletes in the world.”

sport">Bol will play her first game in the Diamond League next Thursday in Rome. She won all six games in the leading athletics series last summer, including the final in Zurich.

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