At the Resisprint competition in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, on Sunday afternoon, Femke Bol broke her own European 400-meter hurdles record, making history as only the second athlete to breach the 51-second barrier.
Bol beat her own European record of 51.45 seconds established in London last summer by precisely half a second, setting the third fastest time ever recorded in history with a 50.95 clocking.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone holds the world record for the fastest running times ever, having ran 50.68 and 50.65 seconds, respectively. Next month, during the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, the two will see one other for the first time in more than two years.
Bol will make her final 400-meter hurdles race before Paris 2024, where she will try to better her bronze from Tokyo, the first senior medal of her career. This Saturday’s event, the London Diamond League, will take place in the British capital, the site of Bol’s European record last year.
Bol holds three of the top ten fastest times in 400-meter hurdle history and an amazing 13 of the top 15 fastest times in European history. Bol was named the 2022 and 2023 women’s European Athlete of the Year.
Remarkably, Bol’s winning time of 50.95 matches the 400-meter flat Olympic qualifying criteria as well.
Bol’s colleague Nadine Visser also created history in a world-class 100-meter hurdles final, defeating Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland with a time of 12.36, a lifetime best that came just 0.01 short of the Polish record, which has been held by Grazyna Rabsztyn since 1980 and was a world record when it was set.
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