Femke Bol will contest her first ever 600m at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophee EDF in Lievin, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, on 19 February.
Bol is embarking on her first season in the 800m and this is the Dutchwoman’s second confirmed race of the indoor season. She will make her 800m debut at the Meeting Metz Metropole on 8 February, a meeting which will be streamed live on the European Athletics website.
The organisers have suggested that Bol could attack the world indoor 600m best which was set by Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson in Manchester in 2023 with a 1:23.41 clocking which saved 0.03 off the previous mark set by Russia's Olga Kotlyarova in 2004.
Hodgkinson was one of the athletes who reacted to the shock news at the end of last year that Bol was transitioning from the 400m hurdles up to the 800m.
"To want to take that step and come into an event that’s been really firing - girls are winning in insanely fast times - I commend her for wanting to do that, and I wish her all the best.
“And I think she's got the talent to do really well. It might take some time to get up, learn the event. She's never running with people around you, trying to disrupt your race. That's a whole different ball game,” said Hodgkinson.
Bol has won the 400m in Lievin twice in the past. She won in 2024 in a meeting record of 49.63 en route to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow where Bol won gold in a world indoor record of 49.17.
Bol's long-time coach Laurent Meuwly has said it is unlikely Bol will contest the 800m at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy-Pomorze although he hasn't ruled out Bol making an appearance in the 4x400m.
Hodgkinson, Battocletti, Nader also confirmed…and more
Hodgkinson will also be in action in Lievin but a head-to-head with Bol will have to wait for another time as the Brit will be contesting the 800m. She won on this track three years ago in 1:57.71 en route to her second European indoor 800m title in Istanbul.
Her training partner Georgia Hunter-Bell, who pipped Hodgkinson for the silver medal in the 800m at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, will line up in the 1500m while world and European 10,000m silver medallist Nadia Battocletti is planning to contest the 3000m.
Battocletti finished fourth in the 3000m in Lievin last year in an Italian record of 8:30.82 and the multiple European champion might have Laura Muir’s European indoor record of 8:26.41 in her sights.
Reigning world 1500m champion Isaac Nader from Portugal has also been confirmed for the men’s 1500m while joint European indoor champion and world silver medallist Emmanouil Karalis from Greece goes head-to-head with former two-time world champion Sam Kendricks in the pole vault.