After her impressive performance in the mixed 4×400-meter relay final around 15 hours earlier, Femke Bol shifted her attention to the 400-meter hurdles, where she easily advanced to the semifinals as the current European and world champion.
Bol won easily in heat three, clocking in at 53.38, which was not only the quickest time of the morning at the Stade de France but also the fastest heat in Olympic history.
The world record holder and current Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, her fiercest competitor, was also among the heat winners. She advanced through the final heat in 53.60 seconds, ahead of Noura Ennadi of Morocco (55.26 seconds) and Louise Maraval of France, the European silver medallist, who came in third in 55.32 seconds.
In the 110m hurdles heat, Sasha Zhoya received one of the loudest cheers of the morning. The popular and charismatic Frenchman qualified automatically from the last heat in third place in 13.43, while world champion Grant Holloway won the race in 13.01 to further cement his status as the gold medal favorite.
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