The China Mail - Just the beginning of the journey, Broeders-Bol says of 800m adventure

The 26-year-old won 400m hurdles golds at last year's Tokyo world champs and the 2023 edition in Budapest.

She is a two-time Olympic bronze medallist in the hurdles and left the 2024 Paris Games with an additional gold and silver in the 4x400m relays.

US rival Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone came away with back-to-back Olympic hurdles golds and also the world record to overshadow the Dutchwoman on the ultimate stage.

While the American has clocked the three fastest times ever in the 400m hurdles, Broeders-Bol has four in the top nine.

The Dutch athlete opted to compete in the 800m just as a pregnant McLaughlin-Levrone stepped away from the sport -- her daughter Savannah was born in July.

But it is not something that Broeders-Bol has regretted for one minute.

- Werro in form -

The women's 800m has been one of the stand-out events of the season, Switzerland's Audrey Werro inching ever closer to the oldest world record in track and field: the 1min 53.28sec over two laps set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslovakia in Munich back in 1983.

Werro has gone third fastest in the all-time list with a winning 1:53.70 at last week's Zurich Diamond League.

Broeders-Bol, second, improved the Dutch national record to 1:54.71 -- the 15th fastest time ever run over the distance and an astonishing achievement for someone new to the event.

"I never expected to go this fast in the first season," she said ahead of the Diamond League finals in Brussels.

"It's a couple of years' plan and I was hoping to get to that level eventually, but to be there already this quickly is a very nice surprise."

The transition from hurdles to the "very unpredictable" 800m had been a "very big experience", she added.

"In the hurdles you also race others but you always have your own hurdles. Here you're together in a lane after 100 metres."

Asked where she could progress, the ever-humble Broeders-Bol replied: "I think pretty much in everything except speed!

"My speed is very good for an 800m runner. My endurance is very bad and I think the tactical part is still something I need to learn.

"For me it really feels like I'm still at the beginning of this journey and there's so much to learn."

- Overcoming fear -

Broeders-Bol added that she had learned not to underestimate herself.

"I was quite scared of the 800. At one point my coach told me I had too much respect for the 800 and also in a way for my competitors, putting everyone and everything on a pedestal, because I didn't know where I was at.

"There's a lot of more things out of your control and it's really a race against each other until the line and I think it's a lot of fun."

With the 800m in a golden age of runners also including Britain's Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, Broeders-Bol expressed hope that she and her rivals "can push the event further together".

"We are in an era where there are so many amazing girls to run against," with Werro, Hodgkinson and the Dutch runner completing the European podium in Birmingham last month.

Sweden's world and Olympic pole vault champion Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis, who registered 7.15m in the long jump as a 17-year-old and 10.37sec in a one-off 100m race in 2024, dubbed Broeders-Bol "amazing".

"If there's anybody that's going to do that transition as well as somebody could do it, it would be her, just based on her professionalism, really," Duplantis said.

"She's such a student of the sport and the event, and she never leaves anything to chance. She's so on top of everything that it's really an inspiration."

Triple world sprint gold medallist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden added that "what Femke has done is something that should be talked about a little more".

"It's really impressive what she's been able to do this year, and I'm excited to see what she does going forward."

M.Chau--ThChM