There is no place like home for Femke Broeders-Bol. Or as she put it, “There is nothing like home love.”
For that, the Fanny Bankers-Koen (FBK) Games allowed Broeders-Bol to shine in her new distance event, the 800 metres.
Approximately 9000 spectators showed their love in the 45th edition of the event on Sunday in Hengelo, Netherlands.
The home crowd received precisely what meeting organizers had hoped for. And that was Dutch stars Femke Broeders-Bol and Niels Laros delivering headline performances at the FBK Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.
Broeders-Bol race
Bol went first in the women’s 800 metres, where the pacing lights had once again been programmed for something closer to a controlled time trial than a championship-style race. The targets were ambitious: 57 seconds through the opening lap and 1:56.5 at the finish.
Reality intervened.
Broeders-Bol tucked in behind the pacemaker but reached 400 metres in a modest 57.75 seconds, already adrift of the prescribed schedule. By 600 metres, passed in 1:28.12, she had assumed the lead, although the question had shifted from the clock to the athletes behind her. Several accomplished kickers remained within striking distance.
Coming off the final bend, Australian champion Abby Caldwell drew alongside and briefly threatened to turn the race into something considerably more uncomfortable for the Dutch star. Instead, Broeders-Bol found another gear.
Over the final 100 metres, she separated herself decisively, pulling away to win in 1:57.41. Caldwell finished second in 1:58.22.
For a sport increasingly preoccupied with lights, pacing systems and projected times, Broeders-Bol ultimately provided a reminder that the best races are still decided by athletes responding to one another rather than to LEDs circling the track.
“I expected to be in front after 500m, which was different than in Ostrava (Golden Spike). I have to practice all these types of races. Today I wanted to run a good first 500m, and then accelerate towards the finish. We wanted the first round to be 57.2, and we ran 57.8, so it was a bit too slow. I try not to focus on times yet. I can really get shocked when seeing the 400m time. I could feel during the race that it was a bit too slow because of how the last 300m of the race felt. For now, I will enjoy this result and the birthday of my husband (Ben Broeders),” said Broeders-Bol.
Niels Laros’s race
This was Laros’s first major competition since pulling out of the 5000m heats with an injury at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
He demonstrated incredible range by dropping down in distance to win.
Laros pulled away cleanly from a competitive international field to secure a confident victory on home soil. He led a Dutch sweep of the top two spots, just outstripping fellow countryman and reigning European indoor champion Samuel Chapple.
Laros holds eight national records; interestingly, the 5000m is not one of them, but the 21-year-old has run as fast as 13:10.86 over the distance. His 1:43.83 on Sunday is technically a better performance than his 5000m best. His best distance so far in his young career is in the 3000m at 7:29.49 indoors, run in February 2025.
