And do what in the 400? Run against SMU, Adeleke and Paulino (and maybe SML)? After Eugene, Bol said she will do the hurdles even if she's eternal second because she loves the event.
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I like Bol a lot. She is absolutely one of my favorite track athletes. I love how she competes and she really has a true love for the sport and has a really likable personality. That said, Syd is going to take her to the woodshed this year.
I like Bol a lot. She is absolutely one of my favorite track athletes. I love how she competes and she really has a true love for the sport and has a really likable personality. That said, Syd is going to take her to the woodshed this year.
Yeah it could be pretty ugly and I like Bol. But Sydney might come damn near close to breaking 50. Bol is going to look like Tyson Gay when he ran 9.71 and lost to Bolt running 9.58. She might run 50-high or 51-low but still get smoked.
This post was edited 30 seconds after it was posted.
Sydney and Femke are almost equal in the 400m flat. Sydney has run high 48 and Femke has run 49 flat indoors.
They only appear to be close because Femke runs the 400 all time.
Sydney split 47.9 on the 4x4 which is about a full second faster anything Femke has.
Relay splits are faster and outdoor times are faster. Bol has run a 49.17 indoors this year. That is easily worth 48 low as an outdoor relay split.
Her relay splits tend to be slower (49 low) for her ability because she often runs on both the women's and mixed teams and/or the relay prelims (because NED has less depth than the US, and therefore NED needs her to).
This crap again. Bol is a hurdler. That's her love. She only emphasizes it 100+ times per year. There was never the slightest possibility she would switch to 400 flat. She doesn't know how to pace that race, which was brutally obvious to anyone who watched her prior to 2019, when she switched to hurdles. The tendency to err minus barriers has shown up many times subsequently, including the 2021 mixed final when she was overly passive and last year's mixed final when she took it out too fast.
Bol isn't scared of running second. She said all last year and several times last year that she hoped Sydney would return to the hurdles. That's an easy attitude to embrace when you were never an extreme prodigy who was afraid to lose, and when overall life is great including your family, boyfriend and training setup.
Bottom line Femke Bol lost the 2024 Olympic 400 hurdles gold medal in 2023, when Sydney didn't run a half second faster over 400 flat. If it had played out that way Sydney and Kersee would have stuck to the plan of eschewing hurdles toward Paris 400 flat gold and pursuing 47.60.
What has sydney trained for the last 2 years? The 200!! She has competed in the 60, 100, 100H, 200, and 400 at suicidal pace (Kersee saying go out as hard as you can the first half). She is primed as a 200 runner currently, we don't know ANYthing about her fitness level/ability to run rounds. Here's another thing to consider, when an athlete gets faster over the flat, it can affect their rhythm when they return to the hurdles because they are covering more ground between barriers. This phenomenon combined with the question mark of her homestretch conditioning may make for a bumpier return after a two year hiatus to her specialty event than people are acknowledging.
I can admit sydney is a 10/10 in genetic potential, with bol being a 9/10, but one has broken multiple long sprint world records (albeit indoors) the past two years and hurdles consistently while the other ran a fast 200 in a one and done scenario.
Bol has garnered a lot of championships in the hurdles when Sydney isn’t present. That will always be enough motivation to race the hurdles. Bol can sense that she’s also dominant in the hurdles and will continue rack up her medals over her rivals. I think she’ll race 400 flat only on low key events.