The new indoor 400m world record holder, Femke Bol, defended her European Indoor title. At the championship of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the Dutch athlete won the gold without appeal with an achievement of 49.85 sec, for the third time in the season she went below 50 sec. Femke Bol will also try to defend her gold in the 4×400 meters tomorrow.
The triumph of the Netherlands was completed by her compatriot Lieke Klaver with 50.57 sec, who won the silver. Polish athlete Anna Kielbasińska earned the bronze medal with 51.25 sec. She is a bronze medalist in the 400m at the European Outdoor Championships in Munich last year.
Femke Bol is a Dutch track and field athlete who specialises in the 400m hurdles and 400m. She is the Tokyo 2020 Olympics bronze medallist in the 400m hurdles with the current European record of 52.03 sec, becoming the third-fastest woman of all time and the first Dutch Olympic medallist at the event. Femke Bol is also the 2022 World Championships silver medallist and 2022 European champion. In the 400m, she is the 2022 World Indoor silver medallist, the 2022 European champion, a two-time European Indoor champion from 2021 and 2023, and the world indoor record holder with a time of 49.26 sec set on February 19, 2023 in Apeldoorn, beating the longest-standing at the time track world record. Femke Bol was the first female athlete to complete the 400m/400m hurdles double at a major championship after she won both titles at the 2022 European Championships, where she added third gold for the women’s 4×400 m relay.
