Two-time European Athlete of the Year Femke Bol will open her indoor season at the Meeting Metz Moselle Athlelor, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, on 3 February.
Bol won at this meeting last year, breaking the 50 second-barrier indoors for the first time with a 49.96 clocking before going on to smash the long-standing world indoor record with 49.26 at the Dutch Indoor Championships and then defending her 400m and 4x400m titles at the European Athletics indoor Championships in Istanbul.
“That was an almost perfect race. Now she has gotten even better, but only if she runs almost perfectly again can she improve that record. The focus now is not on that record, but on winning the world title in Glasgow,” said her coach Laurent Meuwly as quoted by Telesport.
Ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow from 1-3 March, Bol will also race in Lievin on 10 February before returning to the site of her world indoor record in Apeldoorn - also the venue for the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships - for the Dutch Indoor Championships from 17-18 February.
Other top names confirmed for Metz include reigning European indoor champion Jason Joseph against France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Aurel Manga in the men’s 60m hurdles while two-time European indoor champion Nadine Visser faces world 100m hurdles record-holder Tobi Amusan from Nigeria in the 60m hurdles.
In the middle and long distances, Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu and France’s recently crowned European cross country champion Yann Schrub have been confirmed for the 3000m and Brit Jemma Reekie faces a strong field including world 1500m silver medallist Diribe Welteji from Ethiopia and Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi in the 800m.
