Illustration photo – Dutch athlete Femke Bolová after winning the 400 meters at the European Championships in Munich, August 17, 2022.
Apeldoorn (Netherlands) – The Netherlands runner Femke Bolová deprived the legendary Jarmila Kratochvílova of the old indoor world record on the 400 meters track. At the home championship in Apeldoorn, the 22-year-old quarter-distance runner and hurdler beat the nearly 41-year-old performance of the Czech athlete by 33 hundredths with a time of 49.26 seconds.
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Olympic bronze medalist and world runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles, Bolová has seen another dramatic improvement just a week after becoming the fourth woman in history to break the fifty-second mark indoors. In Metá, on the track on which she is also the reigning world indoor vice-champion, she succeeded by four hundredths of a second. Now she has reduced an unprecedented seven tenths and, in addition to Kratochvílova, she has jumped past Natalja Nazarova (49.68) and Taťána Netoličková (formerly Kocembová – 49.76) in the historical tables.
“I was hoping for 49.5, but 49.26, I have nothing to say about that. It's my first world record on a traditional track,” Bolová told Dutch journalists. the best time in the history of Zuzan Hejnová. “When I crossed the finish line, I knew from the noise from the audience that I had a record. Thanks to those people, I ran it, I've never seen so many here before.”
Kratochvílova's time from Milan in March 1982 was the oldest running world record in athletics. Now this record belongs to her 1:53.28 outdoor 800 meter performance from 1983. In technical disciplines, the oldest record is held by Helena Fibingerová, who achieved a performance of 22.50 meters indoors in the shot put in 1977.
Bolová won in Apeldoorn by more than a second ahead of her training partner Lieke Klaverová, who significantly improved her personal best to 50.34 and is second in this year's European tables.
“If it were possible even faster? It felt like a perfect race,” said Bolová. The time achieved is her absolute maximum, she has a personal record of 49.44 on a smooth quarter under the open sky. On the same course with obstacles, she is the European record holder with a time of 52.03.
