Over the next week, European Athletics will be looking at the highlights provided by the continent’s top athletes in 2024… and what better way to start than the indoor season and the exploits of Femke Bol.
The flying Dutchwoman twice revised her own 400m short track world record during last winter's indoor season.
Firstly, she eclipsed her mark of 49.26 on the second day of the Dutch Indoor Championships on home soil in Apeldoorn on 18 February.
In front of a capacity crowd at the Omnisport Apeldoorn - the host venue for the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships - Bol crossed the finish line in 49.24.
Glasgow glory
She then went faster still en route at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow two weeks later on 2 March.
The flying Dutchwoman sped through 200m in 23.55, 0.09 faster than when she clocked her previous record, and kept on pouring on the speed before getting the gold medal in a fabulous 49.17.
“It’s a dream come true. I knew I was in good shape, but you can never predict a world record,” said the elated 2022 and 2023 European Athlete of the Year, who pocketed a $50,000 world record bonus in addition to her $40,000 first prize.
"It was such a strong race, I knew I had to go out fast. My coach said to me ' you can run faster' but to be honest I just wanted to win," added Bol, who was given the accolade of ‘Women’s World Indoor Athlete of the Year’ by the prestigious US publication Track and Field News.
For good measure, Bol anchored the Dutch 4x400m quartet to a gold medal, the four women in orange combining for a world lead and national record of 3:25.07, for fifth place on the European all-time short track lists.
Gold on the global stage
Bol was far from the only European to triumph on the global stage in Glasgow. In fact, no less than 10 gold medals were handed out to European athletes in the Scottish city:
- Men's 400m: Alexander Doom (BEL) 45.25
- Men's 3000m: Josh Kerr (GBR) 7:42.98
- Men's Pole Vault: Armand Duplantis (SWE) 6.05m
- Men's Long Jump: Miltiádis Tentóglou (GRE) 8.22m
- Men's Heptathlon: Simon Ehammer (SUI) 6418 points
- Men's 4x400m: Belgium 3:02.54
- Women's 400m: Femke Bol (NED) 49.17
- Women's Pole Vault: Molly Caudery (GBR) 4.80m
- Women's Pentathlon: Noor Vidts (BEL) 4773 points
- Women's 4x400m: The Netherlands 3:25.07
European athletes also achieved the following superlatives in Glasgow.
- 1 world record
- 1 championship record
- 7 world leading marks
- 11 silver medals (four men, seven women)
- 15 bronze medals (eight men, seven women)
- 29 national records
Kerr-ific!
Great Britian’s Josh Kerr, who hails from nearby Edinburgh, followed up his 2023 world title outdoors over 1500m by extending his range with the 3000m indoor crown in Glasgow in front of his friends and family.
He also thrilled athletics aficionados with his two miles short track world best 8:00.67 at the famed Millrose Games in New York on 11 February, smashing the previous mark of 8:03:40 set by fellow Briton Mo Farah in 2015.
Into the bargain, Kerr’s compatriot Laura Muir set a women’s European two miles short track best of 9:04.84 at the same meeting.
It was a good meeting in the Big Apple for British middle distance runners as George Mills moved up to second on the European short track list for the mile with 3:48.93, just six-hundredths behind Kerr’s European record from 2022.
Mills’ times in New York – with a 1500m mark of 3:33.86 clocked en route – were European short track leads and gave him third on the 2024 world lists for both distances.
Indoor inspiration
Among the other memorable feats and major highlights from European athletes during the 2024 indoor season were:
- Italy’s teenage sensation and 2023 European Athletics Rising Star Mattia Furlani jumping a European U20 indoor best of 8.34m when winning the Italian indoor tittle in Ancona, before going on to take silver in Glasgow.
- Furlani’s compatriot Andy Diaz Hernandez leaping a world triple jump list-leading 17.61m in Torun, Poland on 6 February.
- Great Britain’s Molly Caudery clearing 4.86m, the best in the world during the indoor season, in Rouen, France on 24 February before going on to take gold in Glasgow.
- Poland’s Ewa Swaboda flying to a world-lead and national record of 6.98 in the 60m semis at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, one of only four women to have broken seven seconds in the indoor discipline. Swaboda went on to take the silver medal in the final later in the day.
- But for her fellow Dutchwoman Femke Bol, Lieke Klaver would have made the 400m headlines during the indoor season, running indoor personal best of 50.10 at the Dutch indoor championships in Apeldoorn before taking the silver behind Bol in Glasgow in 50.18 for second on the 2024 world short track lists.
- Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh clearing a world high jump list-leading 2.04m in Cottbus, Germany on 31 January before taking silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, her only defeat in a record-breaking 2024 which saw her crowned as the female European Athlete of the Year.
- The Netherlands’ 2022 European champion outdoors – a title she was to retain in Rome in the summer – Jessica Schilder sending the shot out to a world indoor lead and national record of 20.31m at the Dutch indoor championships in Apeldoorn.
Europe also provided six of the 11 overall winners of the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Tour events, which saw four of the seven Gold Meetings staged at European venues.
- Men's 60m: Jeremiah Azu (GBR)
- Men's 800m: Catalin Tecuceanu (ITA)
- Men's Pole Vault: Piotr Lisek (POL)
- Women's 400m: Lieke Klaver (NED)
- Women's High Jump: Urte Baikstyte (LTU)
- Women's Long jump: Milica Gardasevic (SRB)
Phil Minshull for European Athletics