Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medalist Femke Bol will attempt to break the world 300m hurdles best when she lines up in the event at the Golden Spike Ostrava 2022, —World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting on Tuesday, 31 May.
Bol, who is coming off her best season in 2021 where she won a pair of European Indoor gold medals and then finished third in a world record 400m hurdles race at the Tokyo Games last August, owns a 300m hurdles PB of 38.55 seconds, clocked in Ostrava in 2020, and she will be aiming to better that time in a push to break the world best of 38.16 secs.
READ MORE: [Video] Femke Bol cruises to world-leading 50.72 in Metz
The 22-year-old Dutch star who has only attempted the distance once in a competitive race, is ranked No. 2 on the world all-time list behind Czech Republic’s two-time world 400m hurdles champion Zuzana Hejnova who owns the world’s best mark, which she set in Cheb in 2013.
At the Golden Spike Ostrava 2022, Bol will lineup alongside Hejnova, Great Britain 400m champion Jessie Knight and Slovak record-holder Emma Zapletalova, who is the European U23 champion over 400m hurdles.
Bol was still learning her craft a couple of years ago when she first recorded the second-fastest 300m hurdles time in history.
However, the experience she gained from the major championships since then will put her in a better place mentally when she takes another stab at the world mark at the end of next month.
After winning a pair of European Indoor Championships gold medalist in the 400m and 4×400, relays in the winter last season, Bol went to grab a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles in the Tokyo Games.
She posted a time of 52.03 seconds to set a personal best in a race won by American Sydney McLaughlin, who registered a world record time of 51.46, while her compatriot Dalilah Muhammad also dipped well under 52-seconds for the silver with 51.58.
Bol has had a very impressive start to her 2022 campaign after running three sub-51 seconds indoors for the 400m, including a Dutch indoor record of 50.30 at the national championships in February.
She then went on to land a second silver medal in the event behind Shaunae Miller-Uibo from The Bahamas at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, in March.
The European star also collected another silver in the 4x400m relays with a Dutch team that also included Lieke Klaver, Eveline Saalberg, and Lisanne de Witte and recorded 3:28.57.
Jamaica won the world title with a time of 3:28.40.
Bol is scheduled to make her 400m hurdles season debut at the 2022 Fanny Blankers Koen Games in Hengelo on 6 June.
