Femke Bol......new indoor 500m WR!

Ellen van Langen once said that Femke Bol could beat her longstanding Dutch national record of 1:55:54.

But I’m not convinced that it will ever happen.

Bol's splits (from one of her coaches, Bram Peters):

12.75/ 24.88/ 37.69/ 51.41/ 65.63

The plan was for her to hit 400m in 51.8 or under.

Some comments:

I too would be intrigued to see her run a 600m. She looked to be comfortable in that last 100m.

With SMU pregnant, she should review where she and her main competitors are at next summer; it may well be the 400m flat is her better chance of gold. Or it may still be the hurdles.

Her 300m split here was faster than Jenna Prandini's 300m and she would have only finished a couple of strides behind Thomas in that race. Off her 500m pace. Crazy.

WTF?

Were those high school kids? The top NCAA runner at 1:46 has a 48 second PR and many of the other top 20 guys have a PR of 48.

Edwin Moses (sub 46 guy) ran the 800 in 1:48:98 three months before he set the 400m hurdles WR in 1983

Some of you are still talking about her voice? Are you not able to deduce that her post-race voice in the interview is not how her voice would normally sound and it is a result of exertion? Someone posted an interview with Bol earlier in the thread. Skip ahead to about 5:10ish. I posted it again here. Skip ahead to about 5:10, That is her real voice.

Some people here must really have miserable lives if they are always finding something to bag on others about. More than likely in their own lives the glass is always half empty rather than half full.

Incredible runner. Sounds humble. She would win gold in the 800 if she chose to.

Femke is great, but you just think she’s going to roll in and beat Mu? Honestly, that’s ridiculous.

Not roll in. It would take a year.

Or Hodginson. Or Morra. Or Muir. Or Goule. Or...

If she chose to.

Let’s see her run the 800 in under 2 minutes off her current training, and then we can discuss her prospects.

Especially ridiculous when you consider their 400m PBs are nearly identical. Bol would have to gain the endurance for 800m without losing any speed!

I would like to see Brandon Johnson weigh in on this. He quit the hurdles, took a year off track entirely, then came back in the 800:

2007 1:50.85
(mainly hurdles next few years, PR 48.59)

2010 off

2011 54.64 hurdles

2012 1:46.23

2013 1:43.84

So it took him two seasons to get the proper stamina, coming from low fitness.