Reigning world and European champion Femke Bol clocked her fastest ever season’s opener in the 400m hurdles in the Rabat Diamond League on Sunday (25) evening.
In her first race at her specialist event in over eight months and sporting a new technique out of the blocks, Bol was in vintage form as she stopped the clock at 52.46 and won by almost one-and-a-half seconds from Jamaica’s Andrenette Knight in 53.90.
"I seem to be better off with my other leg. It was never my strongest point. It feels comfortable to me but I still have to think a lot about it. It's something that I'm changing now. But I feel good about it," Bol told the Dutch media ahead of the meeting.
Bol’s time was a meeting record and puts her second on the 2025 world all-time list behind world record-holder and two-time Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who clocked 52.07 earlier this month in Miami.
By contrast, Bol has opted for a low-key start to the season. The 25-year-old opted to miss the 400m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn but the two-time European Athlete of the Year was part of their gold medal-winning teams in both the 4x400m and mixed 4x400m.
Massive 3000m steeplechase breakthrough for Ruppert
But the surprise of the night came from the 27-year-old German Frederik Ruppert who chased home two-time Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali in the 3000m steeplechase, the last event of the night.
El Bakkali stopped the clock at a world lead of 8:00.70 while Ruppert - who made brilliant progress through the field and was getting ever closer to the Moroccan - tore his lifetime best asunder, improving from 8:15.08 to 8:01.49 to smash the German record and move to third on the European all-time list behind the French duo of Mahiedine Mekhissi (8:00.09) and Bob Tahri (8:01.18).
“I had the German record of 8:09 in the back of my mind but I would have never thought to run that fast. Just one second of the European Record. Oh my god, I would have never thought that…probably I won’t be able to fall asleep tonight,” said the incredulous German who races over 1500m in Karlsruhe next week.
Ruppert was crowned European U23 champion in 2019 and has made steady progress since then, just missing out on a podium finish at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome where he set his previous lifetime best.
2022 European javelin champion Elina Tzengko is amassing her most consistent season to date and the Greek won her third successive Diamond League competition of the season.
Tzengko launched a winning throw of 64.60m in the third round to defeat her long-time rival and world leader Adriana Vilagos who improved to 63.25m with her fifth attempt.