Two-time European Athlete of the Year Femke Bol recorded the fourth fastest time in history indoors in the 400m at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, on Saturday (10) evening.
After opening her season with a 49.69 clocking for her fifth successive victory in Metz on Saturday afternoon, Bol lowered her world lead to 49.63 in front of a capacity crowd ahead of her Dutch training partner Lieke Klaver who committed with Bol through 200 metres and was rewarded with a season's best of 50.50.
- Full results here
Next up for Bol - and Klaver - is the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn next weekend on the same track where Bol shattered the world indoor 400m record last February with 49.26. Incidentally, Apeldoorn is also the host venue for the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Bol also endeavours to compete at the World Athletics Indoor Championships from 1-3 March where she will aim to upgrade her silver medal from Belgrade 2022 to gold in Glasgow.
And on the prospect of breaking her world record, Bol played down the growing expectations. "I don’t know if I will ever break my own world record again, but the advantage is I'm the record holder yet. So I can just run for the medals, and that’s what I will also do in Glasgow," she said.
There was a second world lead on the track from Belgium's Eliott Crestan who won an all-European 800m in a lifetime best of 1:45.10 ahead of reigning European outdoor champion Mariano Garcia from Spain in 1:45.50.
A big shot from Fabbri
Leonardo Fabbri made his intentions in 2024 clear with a massive performance in the shot put to top the world list in the event with the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow fast approaching and the European Athletics Championships in Rome less than four months away now.
Responding to Tom Walsh's opening round throw of 22.16m, Fabbri produced an unsurpassable riposte in the second round with a put measured at 22.37m.
That mark was an outright lifetime best, even surpassing his 22.34m from the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest where he won silver behind Ryan Crouser, a world lead and it was also the second longest throw ever recorded indoors by a European behind East Germany's Ulf Timmermann with 22.55m.
And this was far from a one-off. After fouling his third attempt, Fabbri finished the competition with a flourish, recording successive marks of 21.69m, 21.92m and 22.06m. The Italian also believes he can throw even further. "Is this a surprise for me? Not really, because in the warm-up I threw way further. So in the next weeks, I expect to throw further," he said.
Walsh had to settle for second, unable to improve on his opening round throw. Czechia's Tomas Stanek was third with 21.32m while Fabbri's training partner and Italian teammate Zane Weir, the reigning European indoor champion, was fourth with 21.03m.
French record and home victory for Habz
European indoor bronze medallist Azzedine Habz came away with not only the victory in the men’s 1500m on home soil but also the long-standing French indoor record.
With a last gasp sprint finish, Habz pipped Kenya’s Vincent Keter on the line in front of a capacity crowd for victory in 3:34.39 by 0.05 to better two-time European 1500m champion Mehdi Baala’s previous French indoor record of 3:34.71 which was set in 2009.
One weekend after smashing the Irish indoor 3000m record in Metz, Sarah Healy took ownership of the Irish indoor 1500m record. In a race dominated by Ethiopians and won by Freweyni Hailu in 3:57.24, Healy placed fifth in 4:03.83 to smash Ciara Mageean’s previous mark of 4:06.42.
France’s Agathe Guillemot also broke the French indoor 1500m record with 4:04.64 in seventh.
There was also a significant performance from Just Kwaou-Mathey in the 60m hurdles. After easing to victory in his heat in 7.52, the Kwaou-Mathey looked capable of running much faster in the final and the 24-year-old surged to a second-place finish behind world record-holder Grant Holloway (7.32) in a lifetime best of 7.43.
Kwaou-Mathey moves to equal ninth on the European indoor all-time list and within 0.02 of the French record which is held by Dimitri Bascou.
Steven Mills for European Athletics
