• Femke Bol breaks the previous mark set 41 years ago.
• Bol is a world and Olympic 400m hurdles medalist.
• She ran first 200 metres in 23.63 seconds before bursting through finish line in 49.26.

Femke Bol of the Netherlands set a new world record in the women’s indoor 400m on Sunday with a time of 49.26 seconds, breaking the previous mark set 41 years ago.

The 22-year-old beat Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvilova’s time of 49.59 seconds in March 1982 at the Dutch national championships in Apeldoorn.

Bol, a world and Olympic 400m hurdles medalist, also set a world record of 36.86 seconds in the rarely run 300m hurdles last year in Ostrava.

“I ran this record because of all the fans here,” Bol said after her race at the Omnisport arena.

“I’ve never seen so many people in one place. Because of the noise made by the crowd when I crossed the line, I knew the record was mine.”

Bol broke 50 seconds for the first time indoors last weekend with a time of 49.96 seconds in Metz, but she shaved 0.7 seconds off that time on Sunday.

She got off to her customary strong start, running the first 200 metres in 23.63 seconds before bursting through the finish line in 49.26, followed by Lieke Klaver, who came in second in 50.34.

Bol demonstrated her impressive form two weeks prior when she ran the fastest women’s indoor 500m time ever at the Boston Indoor Grand Prix in 1 minute, 05.63 seconds.

By beating the previous record of 1:06.31 set by the Russian Olesya Krasnomovets-Forsheva in January 2006, she became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier at the distance.

Bol won European championships in the 400-meter hurdles, 400-meter sprint, and 4×400-meter relay last year.

Additionally, she won silver in the 400-meter hurdles at the World Championships in Eugene, and then bronze at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.

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