Femke Broeders-Bol enjoyed a victorious homecoming in the 800m at the FBK Games in Hengelo, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event, on Sunday (21) afternoon.
Broeders-Bol held the inside line after pacemaker Lisanne de Witte dropped out just after the bell and the 25-year-old fended off the field down the back straight before serenely pulling clear from her pursuers off the final bend for victory in 1:57.41 in just her third race at the distance.
Broeders-Bol won by almost an entire full second from Australia’s Abby Caldwell in 1:58.22 with France’s Clara Liberman third in a lifetime best of 1:58.69. She also took the notable scalps of 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi from Uganda and reigning European indoor champion Anna Wielgosz who finished sixth (1:59.88) and eighth (2:00.19) respectively.
"I expected to be in front after 500m which was different than in Ostrava. I have to practice all these types of races. Today I wanted to run a good first 500m, and then accelerate towards the finish. We wanted the first round to be 57.2 and we ran 57.8, so it was a bit too slow. I saw athletes after 100 metres already, so I had to keep myself calm," said Broeders-Bol.
Broeders-Bol will make her Diamond League debut at her new discipline in the Paris Diamond League on 28 June when she will face a field including world leader Audrey Werro from Switzerland, the third fastest 800m runner in history..
Sub-1:44 season's debut for Laros
Double European U23 champion Niels Laros made it a Dutch double by winning the men’s 800m to close the programme.
In his first race since pulling out of the 5000m heats with injury at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, Laros showed his range and ability as he pulled away from a competitive field for a confident victory in a lifetime best of 1:43.83, the first sub-1:44 clocking of his career.
Laros led a Dutch one-two with reigning European indoor champion Samuel Chapple finishing second in 1:44.63, just ahead of Croatia’s Marino Bloudek who was given the same time in third.
"My trainings went quite well but honestly, training is a lot different than competing. I really tried not to have any expectations, I just wanted to race. I'm happy that this is the result of that. It's my first race again, I had to get used to racing again, too. Deep down, I knew I was capable of doing something great," said Laros.
Nadine Visser won the 100m hurdles on home soil in 12.52 against a strong headwind of 1.8 m/s and European U23 champion Jonas Phijffers won the men’s 400m in 44.84, his second win in a row at his home meeting.
World and European champion Jessica Schilder also won the shot put on home soil. She added further lustre to her afternoon’s work by breaking the 20 metre-barrier in the sixth round, extending her lead with 20.03m to lead a Dutch one-two ahead of Jorinde Van Klinken with 19.34m.
Schilder and Van Klinken repeated their finishing order from the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome where they won gold and silver respectively in the shot put.
Reigning Olympic and European high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine cleared 1.94m in the high jump before taking three unsuccessful attempts at 2.00m.