World champion Femke Bol said on Friday she will head to the Paris Olympics in confident form, having taken inspiration from US gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Bol will star in one final Olympic appetiser when she races the 400m hurdles at Saturday’s Diamond League meet in London, fresh from becoming just the second woman to break the 51-second barrier in the gruelling event.
The 24-year-old Dutch athlete, who finished third in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics when world record holder McLaughlin-Levrone took gold, ran 50.95sec in Switzerland on Sunday to smash her own European record of 51.45.
“It’s an amazing track in London and I really hope to put up a good race again, show my form and build on last week, open up fast and finish a bit stronger,” Bol said.
“I’m really excited to be out here and have one last test before Paris.
“I’m really happy, training has been going really well and competition is also going great.
“It’s a great feeling going into the Olympics,” she said, with 58,000 tickets sold for Saturday’s meet at London Stadium, the venue used for the memorable track and field programme at the 2012 Games.
Bol said her running pitfall was often being “too cautious”, but she was let loose — with success — in a smaller meet in the Swiss town of La Chaux-de-Fonds last weekend.
“I shouldn’t be too comfortable,” she insisted. “I’ll just focus on my race and we’ll see on the clock what it brings.”
Inspiration and motivation
Bol said McLaughlin-Levrone had acted as an inspiration.
“Of course, we’re friendly and we’re with the same sponsor,” she said of her relationship with the American.
“We both realise that the 400m hurdles is not an easy event so from my side there’s also a lot of inspiration I take from her, I know how committed and hard-working she is.
“We don’t see each other a lot but we’ll see each other in Paris!”
Actually seeing McLaughlin-Levrone compete is a rarity on the circuit, but it is fair to say Bol is everywhere.
Already this season, she won the 400m flat at the world indoor championships in Glasgow in March, before claiming two more golds and a bronze at the European outdoor championships in Rome in June, not to mention her appearances at various track meets.
“Everyone has their own way,” she said when asked about her and McLaughlin-Levrone’s differing race schedules.
“I love to race, it brings me confidence but also brings me things to work on.
“For me racing is what I really love the most. It helps me to become a better athlete.
“I’m often a lot on the track and that’s how I like it.”
Bol added: “It’s inspirational and motivational how McLaughlin-Levrone’s racing and seeing how she’s raising the bar.
“In all honesty a couple of years ago if you’d told me people would be running 400m hurdles in 51sec, I wouldn’t have believed it, and now I’m one of them doing it.
“The moment you see someone doing it… there’s is something in your head that thinks ‘maybe I can also do it’.
“For sure it’s something that pushes me to become better and dream better on the 400m hurdles.”
