During winter, she achieved the 400m indoor world record that had stood for over forty years. Now the Dutch Femke Bol is ready to enchant Florence in the 400m hurdles, the discipline in which she won the world silver medal in Eugene and the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo. Exactly 50 days from the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea 2023, third stage of the Wanda Diamond League, here it’s the first star of the line up who will give an unforgettable evening at the Ridolfi stadium in Florence on Friday 2 June. The 23-year-old hurdler will come back to the Golden Gala for the fourth consecutive edition and this time too she will seek victory as already happened in 2020 at the Olimpico in Rome (53.90), in 2021 in Florence (53.44) and in 2022 again at the Olimpico (53.02).
Despite her young age, Femke Bol already boasts a personal history of excellent quality, among which the two Diamond League Trophies won in Zurich in the past two editions, two silver medals at the Belgrade 2022 World Indoor Championships (400m, 4x400m) and an uncontested domination in Europe, with the golden hat-trick in Munich (400m, 400hs, 4x400m) and the double indoor title in Istanbul (400m, 4x400m). Her 'dance' between hurdles, elegant and effective, is to be admired.
The 49.26 run in Apeldoorn on February 19 at the 400m indoors was sensational, a performance with which she archived the historic world record of Jarmila Kratochvilova dated 1982 (49.59). But her results over the 400m hurdles are also remarkable, with the 52.03 (European record) achieved in the magnificent final of Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her unstoppable growth has brought her to the top globally and in summer she will be able to be again among the protagonists of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, towards which the Golden Gala will be an important stage of approach.
