Femke Bol 50.96 European Record

I just don't understand the hate that Bol is getting. Is she is not allowed to challenge? Is she not allowed to improve? Even if Sydney wins in Paris, so what? Bol can get olympic silver, to add to her World championship gold, Diamond league champion, European champion...you guys need to stop acting like Femke's entire existence is dependant on beating Sydney.

Not anyone's fault at all. Both all time greats. Simply that Syd has dominated the event for years. You would think that Bol would have to win eventually.

I was thinking the same thing. IF Bol is outside SML, its a serious adv to Syd with a faster start. No way Bol is stronger last 2 hurdles. Record gets pushed too far beyond Bol's career.

It always takes 2!

Whenever some athlete has some success (especially a woman), the LR message board haters come out to piss on each other and make ridiculous arguments and accusations. Why not be pleased that we have two women running fast times in the same event? Bol's good performances don't diminish SML, or vice versa. The Olympic matchups have just gotten a little more interesting. I used to think SML was maybe a full second better, with a 90 percent chance to win. Now I'd say maybe 0.5 second in equal conditions, with an 80 percent chance. Still the favorite, but it just got more interesting. I'm not on anyone's side, I just enjoy the excitement of a good race where two greats push each other to new heights. And I enjoy it a lot more than the endless stupid bickering on some anonymous message board by a bunch of losers.

I have run at La Chaux de Fonds. I mentioned the thin air because it’s real (from personal experience).

In the 400H it can have an additional advantage (or disadvantage) because of potential help on the stride pattern due to lower air resistance.

In watching that meet in full it was a mixture of very normal results mixed with a heck of a lot of huge personal bests. For example, Bol's teammate Eveline Saalberg matched her at 50.95, but obviously at 400 flat not hurdles. Bol joked to Saalberg on Instagram that they were "twinning."

Meanwhile Saalberg completely bypassed the 51s. She hadn't been under 52 in two years.

I don't understand why this meet wasn't contested earlier, when Olympic qualification window was still open. It would be the most popular small venue meet in the world.

I think a lot of people agree with you about having great competition including myself. Thats the definition of the word competition. Together, we shall see how good we can be. Win or lose.

Personally, I dont think we've seen Sidney's best yet. It's going to take a hungry Bol to bring it out of her. I really liked what I saw at the trials and this effort by Bol in those conditions. If all goes well, we'll get to see a memorable race either way.

Just filter the negatives here the best you can. I fail at that as well sometimes.

I think SML's chance of winning has gone from 99% to 95%.

At their best Moses was 0.46 sec faster than Schmid. I still thought Moses had 95% chances of winning any race in his prime.

Saturday's London Diamond League meet has both the women's 400 & 400H on the docket.

If Bol runs either, we'll find out soon enough how much of a factor altitude was in Femke's 50.96 today.