Femke Bol destroys longest-standing world record in track
The Dutch Olympic and world medallist has set her second indoor world record of the season, breaking the 41-year 400m record in 49.26 seconds
Photo by:
Kevin Morris
After 41 years, the longest-standing world record in track has been broken. On Sunday at the Dutch indoor championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Femke Bol ran 49.26 seconds over 400m to break Jarmila Kratochvilova‘s world record of 49.59, which has stood since 1982.
World record race 👀
4️⃣9️⃣.2️⃣6️⃣ 🤯
Watch how Femke Bol tears up the track at the 🇳🇱 championships in Apeldoorn 🔥
⬇️
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) February 19, 2023
Bol split 24 seconds at the 200m mark and closed in 25.26 seconds to shatter the previous record by three-tenths of a second, a significant mark for 400m.
Last weekend in Metz, France, Bol came close to the 400m record, clocking 49.96 for the fourth fastest time in history.
Earlier this indoor season at the New Balance Grand Prix, Bol ran a world record in the indoor 500m (1:05.63), but her record was referred to as a world best by World Athletics because the 500m is not commonly raced in the WA program. She also has the fastest time in history in the 300m hurdles (36.86), which is also not in the WA program.
At only 22, Bol has already established herself as one of the best female athletes in the world. She holds the Dutch national record in the 400m and the 400mH, and has five major championship medals to her name.
Kratochvilova‘s was the longest-standing world record in any track race on the outdoor or indoor program.
The new longest-standing world record is Kratochvilova’s outdoor 800m world record of 1:53.28 from 1983. Since she set it, only two women have come within a second of it: Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo (1:54.01) and Caster Semenya of South Africa (1:54.25).
The outdoor 400m world record is 47.60, set by German Marita Koch in 1985. Only three women in the last 15 years have broken 49 seconds for 400m outdoors: back-to-back Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, two-time silver medallist Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser, who is currently serving a two-year suspension for doping violations (whereabouts failures).
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