Femke Bol scorches to stadium record

World champion Femke Bol delivered a brilliant meeting record of 52.11, just 0.04 outside Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone’s world lead to win the women’s 400m hurdles. Running from lane six, the Dutch athlete had former Olympic and world champion Dalilah Muhammad on her immediate inside.

And the America made her presence felt, creeping up on Bol’s shoulder for the majority of the race. But Bol held firm and with three barriers remaining, she kicked clear on the finishing straight to clip 0.16 off her own three year old meeting record. Muhammad was second in 52.91, with Panama’s Gianna Woodruff third in 53.99.

“This is one of my favourite stadiums so to take the Stadium Record makes me very happy,” said Bol. “I am not in my best shape yet so to take the victory is especially good. I was very focussed on the middle section of the race today and that went well as I pushed ahead at that stage.

“A race is never the same as training and it is only my third race of the season so I am still feeling some lactic but I am starting to feel the hurdles better every race and getting into race shape.

“It is such a high level at the moment in the hurdles so I am very excited going forward towards the World Championships. I am running a couple of 400m flats next then I have London Diamond League then I go back into a big training block before Tokyo.”

There was yet another meeting record in the women’s 100m hurdles, where the USA’s Grace Stark won in 12.33 (+1.4m/s) ahead of world indoor bronze medallist Ackera Nugent of Jamaica in 12.37 and European indoor silver medallist Nadine Visser of the Netherlands in 12.49.