World 400m hurdles champion and European record holder in the event, Femke Bol, made her first start of the season in her crowning event and cruised to victory in 53.07 sec at the Stockholm Diamond League. She was worried about her Jamaican rivals, but in the last meters she managed to increase the distance between her and them and cross the finish line first.
Rushell Clayton won the silver with 53.78 sec, and her compatriot Andrenette Knight came in third with 54.62 sec.
“It’s been really fun, Stockholm is a really beautiful place and especially if I can run during Mondo’s world record attempts then the crowd is really amazing. I could execute my stride pattern exactly as I planned, there are still some points to improve, but that’s always the case at the season opener. My first two hurdles could be a bit better, it was a bit slow and going over the hurdles wasn’t that good. But this is my fastest start of the season so I can’t complain too much. I started my season a little later than usual because I had a busy indoor season followed by the world relays. I wanted to get in a good training block to be as fresh as possible for the Olympics and with the Europeans also in the middle, it seemed like the best plan for us. Compared to last season the seventh hurdle is much better now, we worked a lot on it with technique training and also on overcoming the hurdles with my sick leg”, said Femke Bol.
