The void which was left in the 400m hurdles by two-time champion Femke Bol who won the title by almost two seconds in Rome has been filled in emphatic style by Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalová.
Zapletalová won a bronze medal behind Bol at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, the Dutchwoman’s final race over the barriers, and she has continued to get faster and faster throughout the summer.
European record - Femke Bol (NED) 50.95
European lead - Emma Zapletalová (SVK) 52.30
Championship record - Femke Bol (NED) 52.49
Roma 2024 medallists
Femke Bol (NED) 52.49
Louise Maraval (FRA) 54.23
Cathelijn Peeters (NED) 54.37
Five to watch
- Emma Zapletalová (SVK)
- Emily Newnham (GBR)
- Paulien Couckuyt (BEL)
- Louise Maraval (FRA)
- Amalie Iuel (NOR)
Zapletalová has broken the 53 second-barrier three times with her fastest performance coming in the Doha Diamond League.
The Slovakian clocked 52.30 to move to sixth on the world all-time list and become the second fastest European in history behind Bol, moving ahead of Russia’s Yulia Pechonkina whose 52.34 stood as a world record for 16 years between 2003 and 2019.
But it has been a difficult path for Zapletalová to reach this point. She won the European U23 title in 2021 before a litany of injuries forced her to miss almost the entirety of the next three seasons, including the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome and 2024 Olympic Games.
At her last appearance on the European stage in 2022, Zapletalová finished last in her heat by almost an entire second. Four years later, the 26-year-old looks poised to make history by becoming the first Slovakian woman to win a European title.
Zapletalová leads the 2026 European list by a Bol-esque margin over Great Britain’s Emily Newnham and Belgium’s Paulien Couckuyt who are the only other Europeans to have broken the 54 second-barrier with recently-set lifetime bests of 53.92 and 53.98 respectively.
Like Zapletalová, Newnham and Couckuyt have also won European U23 titles in their respective careers. Newnham won gold in Bergen last year in a championship record of 54.08 while Couckuyt won this title back in 2019.
The only returning medallist from Roma 2024 is France’s Louise Maraval, who is arguably just as renowned for her exploits in the 4x400m relay, a distant silver medallist behind Bol who won gold in a championship record of 52.49.
And could there be a medal-winning farewell for Norway’s Amalie Iuel who has announced that she is retiring at the end of the season? Now 32, Iuel recently improved her lifetime best and national record to 54.05. She will also have medal prospects with her Norwegian teammates in both the mixed 4x400m and women’s 4x400m.
Other names to watch include Finland’s Hilla Uusimäki (54.28) and joint Portuguese record-holders Fatoumata Binta Diallo and Sofia Lavreshina, both of whom have clocked 54.31 to take an equal share of the national record in 2026.