Infotainment Factory: Athlete shatters 41-year-old world record

Dutch running sensation Femke Bol has broken a 41-year-old world record on the second day of the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.

A week after breaking the 50-second mark in the 400m with a 49.9 in Metz, Bol took a whopping seven tenths off that time, to clock a 49.26 and lower the old record set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in March 1982.

"When I crossed the line I knew that the record was mine, because of the noise that the crowd made," Bol said after the race.

Femke Bol celebrating her World Record during the Dutch Championships Athletics Indoor 2023 at Omnisport on February 19, 2023 in Apeldoorn, Netherlands (Photo by Patrick Goosen/Orange Pictures)

"It was because of all the fans here that I ran this record," Bol said. "Never have I ever seen that many people here."

Remarkably, the time is two-tenths better than her PB outdoor time.

"I was hoping to run the record, of course, but in life you hope for a lot of things and most of the time it does not happen," she told World Athletics.

"I am glad that I did not just get the record, but that I improved it by a big margin.

"I wanted this record so badly and I knew I had to make sure to be first going into the final lap. I could really power through between 200m and 300m, and that made the difference."

The 22-year-old won bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 400 hurdles. She also ran a world indoor 500m best of 1:05.63 in Boston in her first race of this season.

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