Femke Bol, the clockwork orange who flew in the mixed 4×400 to win a lost race and the bad memory that forced her to accelerate without stopping

With a providential sprint in the final stretch, Femke Bol This Saturday he gave the gold medal to the Netherlands in the mixed 4×400 meter relay after destroying the athletes from the United States and the United Kingdom in the rain, who had started with a huge advantage in the last relay. It is, without a doubt, one of the images that will remain for posterity of these Paris 2024 Olympic Games..

The North American Kaylyn Brown He led the last lap of the Stade de France, but Bol beat her in the last 30 meters to stop the clock at 3m07s43just two hundredths above the world record, broken on Friday in the qualifiers by the United States. The record achieved by Bol, Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver and Isaya Klein Ikkink is also a European record.

The American mixed team set a time of 3m07s74 and the British team set the clocks at 3m08s01. Poland, winners three years ago in Tokyo, came in a disappointing seventh place with a time of 3m12s39.

The Paris 2024 final had a taste of revenge for the Dutch mixed team and, in particular, for Bol, who in the World Cup Budapest 2023 He fell when he was leading the race a few meters from the finish and gave the victory to the North American team.

Bol explained after the race that the 2023 accident was the motivation to accelerate in the last meters. “In the last 100 I only thought about moving forward… and my anger in Budapest,” said the 24-year-old Dutchwoman.

Bol completed the last lap in 47.93 – compared to Kaylyn Brown’s 49.14 – a mark that surprised even herself. “I expected to run that fast at some point, but the truth is that in the relay you never focus too much on the split times, but rather on being together as a team,” added Bol.

“I just went for it. This time we wanted a medal, we didn’t think it was going to be gold, but just a medal. And well, we have achieved gold and we are Olympic champions. It’s crazy, for a small country like ours,” concluded Bol, who this Sunday will participate in the 400-meter hurdles heats, where she starts as a big favorite.