Femke Broeders-Bol backed by coach to challenge the very best over 800m
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Ostrava – Femke Broeders-Bol will make her outdoor 800m debut at Golden Spike in the Czech city of Ostrava on June 16, with her coach Laurent Meuwly backing the former hurdler to mix it with the best over two laps.
Broeders-Bol may only be 26 but she has packed a lot into her career, winning two world gold medals for the 400m hurdles.
It is a discipline in which she has shone on the elite Diamond League circuit, completing an incredible sixth unbeaten campaign in 2025.
Her exceptional finishing pace has also seen her claim multiple medals as the anchor leg in 4x400m relay teams, notably a gold in the mixed event in the Paris Olympics.
But the Dutch athlete opted to step away from the hurdles, which has been dominated on the Olympic scene by American rival and world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Broeders-Bol, whose name change is due to her marriage to Belgian pole vaulter Ben Broeders, ran her first 800m since 2017 in February, clocking a national record of 1min 59.07sec before withdrawing from the rest of the indoor season to nurse a foot injury.
Coach Meuwly is under no illusion of his charge’s capability.
“I think she’ll surprise a lot of people in this first month of competition,” Meuwly said.
“There’s a lot of excitement because it’s been a long period without racing.
“We’re looking forward to a new challenge.”
He also hinted that the oldest world record in athletics – the 1:53.28 for the outdoor 800m set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslovakia in 1983 – could be under threat.
“I’ve always said that if Femke switched to the 800 metres, it was because I also felt that the 800m world record was more within her reach than the 400m hurdles record,” Meuwly said.
“It’s a record that dates back a very long time, from an era when we know there were quite a few doping issues, so there’s a bit of a myth surrounding this 800m record.
“But when we started considering making the switch, I was absolutely convinced that it was possible for women to run 1:52, or even faster.”
There is a packed field awaiting in Ostrava, notably in the form of Switzerland’s Audrey Werro.
Werro is fresh off establishing herself as the world’s all-time No. 3 after a sensational 1:53.98 to beat Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson on June 7.
Given Broeders-Bol’s impressive closing speed, Werro could well be pushed hard again towards a fast time.
Meuwly said Werro had been “improving very steadily over the past few years”.
Elsewhere, former world champion Sha’Carri Richardson won her first 100m of the season on June 14, clocking 10.99sec at the Los Angeles Grand Prix.
With a slight headwind of -0.2m/sec, Richardson outdistanced training partner Kayla White (11.08) and Tamari Davis (11.11) and said it “felt good” for a first outing at the distance. AFP