Did the mixed relay hurt Bol?

Just watched the W400H replay. After the race, I saw Bol slap her face and utter an F bomb as if to say she could have done better. For some reason, that F bomb makes me like her more.

What cost her silver was running for Gold. She went off with Syd and couldn't live with it.

If she runs her own race she wins Silver but has no chance of Gold.

It's admirable I think

Maybe a tiny bit, but it was 5 days ago and it's not like athletes don't do hatd workouts 5 days before their A race.

No, what cost Femke the race was splitting the first 5 hurdles faster than SML and matching her at hurdle 7, in a race where SML ran 50.37. That is simply suicide for Femke, who always runs her best race by starting conservative and then turning on the jets in the last 100.

On her very best day I could see her finishing 0.5 behind SML for a ~50.87, that time loss would have to come early on - let's say the first 200m. Then from there she would utilise her engine to match SML over the second half of the race.

Why didn’t SML do the relay? If the general consensus is it doesn’t affect you for further races. Genuine question as I don’t know why.

Adeleke also chose to just focus on an individual 400m and not do any relays. There must be a reason for this. Going 400m flat out a few times before your goal race will have an impact I think.

But I also think she tired herself out in the first half trying to keep up with Sydney and then mentally went to pieces. Sad to see as she is such a good athlete for the sport. Always racing, loves competing..

These athletes may need better sports psychologists..

I do think in future she needs to trust her own pace and not go out so hard. When she has something left in the tank, as we have seen, she can switch to a different gear. Not quite SML level but she would be a close second.

Bol and Klaver train for endurance and quick recovery because the relays are important to the Netherlands so they're always part of them. In Budapest she ran the heats as well, then fell on her face and still ran 51.7 in the hurdles final.

She would never have gotten gold but what cost her the silver was trying to get it anyway and going out too fast.

Yes

better to have one gold and one bronze than have one silver

She lost silver because she had already given up by the 9th hurdle when the win was hopeless. You could see it in face. Once Cockrell passed her she just wanted walk of the track. She only surged slightly the last 20-30m when she realized she might not even get bronze.

This

She went wild from about 150-250 knowing that she was under immense pressure. I can't blame the girl because she had a real but outside chance at becoming the Olympic champ. Silver or bronze doesn't really matter to the #2 all time.

Still a superb athlete. Just sad she has to face the greatest to ever do it.

She went sub-48 split on the mixed relay. Then had to run 2 additional heats before advancing to the final. I'd imagine she had some of that in her legs, still.

Interesting not that Lieke Klaver hasn't had the greatest Olympics so far compared to her normal self. So I wonder if part of the blame should be on the coach for not preparing them optimally.

I don't know if she was hurt by the relay or by simply going out too hard in the hurdles final and fading down the stretch.

But let's assume the relay hurt her, for the sake of the argument.

Would I take:

Gold in a relay + Bronze in an individual event

OR

Silver in an individual event

Is that even a question? Of course you take the Gold and Bronze.

Something was not right with her. Very sluggish, not her usual pop. It could have been nerves of course, but she had that glassy eyed look. I would not be surprised if it turns out that she has Covid.

It looked like half the Dutch team in the stands were wearing masks. Preventative or already sick?

Nonsense. Sydney was inside her. Both were running their own race. Sydney kicked at 200m; Bol had little to give. A 47.9 400m will do that to you. Her training partner, who also ran the mixed relay, didn't make the 400m final when she really ought to have done. The keeping-up-with-Sydney narrative is partisan, but fatuous.

A 47.9 relay leg is probably more like a 48.5 open 400, but your point is valid; it was probably close to as fast as she could run. It probably ensured that she had no chance to run a 50.x to get close to Sidney. People also seem to be discounting that Femke had the two rounds of the 400 hurdles prior to the finals. She ran them in 53.8 and 52.5, the latter of which was only a few tenths off of her time in the finals.

She could have done better how? She ran the race she and her coach adopted in the mountains where she celebrated and was glowing over her altitude time.
Transitioning to the London Diamond League at sea level, she replicated the same race plan but with an obviously slower time, yet she still emerged victorious, setting a new personal best. The new heretofore successful new race strategy continued in Paris, where the only change was encountering the mountain named Sydney.

She tried to keep up with Sydney running the first 200M hard. What she did not factor is that to keep up with Sydney she would have to run faster than she had ever run before and doing so would have nothing left for the final 200M. So when Sydney accelerated off the 2nd bend and Bol realized she had nothing left in the tank, it was game over.

I am just happy for her that she did not fall going over the last hurdle.

You are out of your mind. Bol was never going to run sub 50 anything. She is not capable of doing so at sea level.

She did not run the first 5 hurdles faster than Sydney either. Sydney was the first athlete over the 1st hurdle eating into the stagger and while they went over the hurdles at the same time going down the back straight, Sydney had already made up the stagger on the first bend. Middle of the 2nd bend, Sydney was already equal if not one stride ahead of Bol.

Had she run the race as you stated, the results would have been exactly the same, because Sydney would have blown by Bol half way down the back straight. Bol ran the race the best way she could by adopting her new race strategy of going out hard over the first 200M that she and her coach have talked about and practiced.

No USA premium athlete runs the mixed relay. They only take part in the more prestigious 4x4 final at the end of the championships. There are probably two reasons for this:

1. It is not prestigious enough

2. They want to ensure there is absolutely nothing that impacts their ultimate goal - their individual event.

She would not be a close 2nd. She would be 2nd perhaps, but not close.