There is much anticipation about Dutch athlete Femke Bol moving up from the 400 metre and 400 metre hurdles events to the 800m. It has been announced that on February 8, two weeks before her 26th birthday, she will race in “Metz.” Meeting Metz Moselle Athlélor is part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour and will take place at L’Anneau-Halle d’athlétisme de Metz in France.
Track fans are curious as to how well she will do.
Bol is the European record holder in the 400mh with her 50.95 personal best set in July 2024.
The two-time World Champion and four-time Olympic medallist announced that she was moving up to the two-lap event in October 2025. While she is moving up in distance, American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone announced in January that she is pregnant. This will leave a void in the two sprint events for 2026.
February 8 will not be the first time that Bol has run the 800m event. When she was 16, she ran 2:19:51 indoors in Dortmund, Germany. Even then, she was a 400m specialist.
Apparently, her current coach shared that the increased aerobic-focused training is going well. The Bol team must have already had some indicators to demonstrate that she may run well over the event, otherwise, she would not have committed to this season yet. Certainly, her 2:19.51 was run without the specific training, likely not in superspikes, devoid of pacers, and is an indoor performance. It can be assumed that 1-2 seconds can be taken off for the transition from indoors to outdoors. Also, at least 1 second each for the quality of footwear, and a more responsive rubber track. Two unknowns are her maturity from training and racing internationally, and specific aerobic training that she is undergoing now.
Comparing a few 800m specialists to Bol in terms of how they have raced the shorter distance, Keely Hodgkinson ran 51.61 in 2024 over the 400m flat, where Bol’s best is 49.17, which is the indoor world record. American Athing Mu, who won Tokyo gold ahead of Hodgkinson, clocked a world U20 record at 49.57.
Mary Moraa owns an 800m 1:56.03 and a 400m 50.38. All three of these athletes have beat each other internationally, and their PBs vary greatly over the 400m.
| 800m specialists | 800m | 400m | Nation | Comment |
| Athing Mu | 1:54.97 NR | 49.57 U20 WR | USA | |
| Keely Hodgkinson | 1:54.61 NR | 51.61 | Great Britain | |
| Mary Moraa | 1:56.03 | 50.38 | Kenya | |
| Georgia Hunter-Bell | 1:54.90 | 57.36 (2014) | Great Britain | |
| Caster Semenya | 1:54.25 NR | 49.62 NR | Republic of South Africa | DSD |
| 400m specialists | ||||
| Femke Bol | 2:19:51 (2017) | 49.17 AR | Netherlands | |
| SML | – | 47.78 AR | USA | |
| Natoya Goule-Toppin | 1:55.96 NR | 51.52 | Jamaica | |
| Jarmila Kratochvílová | 1:53.28 | 47.99 NR | Czechoslovakia | Suspected doper |
What will be interesting about Bol is if she has an immediate impact over the 800m distance, or will it take part or all of an entire season to manage the distance with the top athletes. Physiologically, we know she can run around 50 seconds for 400m, and in an 800m race, where she lands that second half will all come out in the wash well after 600m. Expect her to be in races with 150 to 175m to go.
We do not have a 600m time to look at; however, she has run 500m in 1:05.63, which is the world’s best known time for the distance. That performance points to well under 2:00.
She should easily crack two minutes (2:00). How well she can run with the 1:55-1:57 athletes will be fascinating to watch. At this rate, she has nothing to lose, as she has already proven to be a great sprinter. Time is on her side.
