Femke Bol defended her women’s 400m hurdles title with a brilliant run at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Friday (19), winning the final in a world lead of 51.54.
It is her third gold medal at the World Athletics Championships, following victory in her specialist event and the women’s 4x400m two years ago in Budapest. It is also her 26th major medal of her incredible international career, which now includes 17 golds.
The Dutch superstar, unbeaten in her specialist event this year had the USA’s Jasmine Jones vying for the lead with her in the first half of the race.
But between 200m and 300m, she took charge of the race. She held a clear lead into the home straight and held her form to take gold, 0.54 clear of the American.
Zapletalová wins bronze for Slovakia
There was a surprise bronze for Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalová. Running in lane two in her first ever final at the World Athletics Championships, the former European U23 champion chased down Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell off the final barrier to snatch bronze by 0.13 in a national record of 53.00.
Zapletalová is also part of Femke Bol’s training group.
Bol "really proud"
"The race always starts hard for me but I know my strong points," said the champion. "We worked really hard on this and I got this pretty comfortably. My job is just to keep running, keep the focus and do one hurdle at a time. This is my second gold medal in a row which makes me really proud.
"This means the world to me. At these world championships I had to keep my title. I am proud of myself and my team for doing it. This year we tried to change some things in training to get better at finishing the race. I really improved myself with that.
"Today I tried to keep my speed. I was pushing and cruising. The last 100m was the best I've had all season, that is what was special today. I always try to keep focusing on my execution. I know the race will get hard, 400m hurdles always does. I was focused on myself and running for my life until I made it through the line."
Warholm slips to fifth
In the men’s 400m hurdles, world record holder Karsten Warholm failed in his bid for a record-breaking fourth world title. Racing from an unfavourable lane four on the track where he set the world record of 45.94 in winning the Tokyo Olympics, the Norwegian never quite looked comfortable.
He clattered the third hurdle hard and was already straining to stay with Olympic champion Rai Benjamin in lane seven. As they came around the bend and into the finishing straight, Warholm was five metres adrift and he faded badly, placing 5th in 47.58.
Benjamin won his first world gold in 46.52, ahead of 2022 world champion Alison Dos Santos of Brazil (46.84) and Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba (47.06).