“It doesn’t make sense” – Mixed relay team also surprised by Olympic title

Lieke Klaver makes herself as strong as possible. That’s where you have to be, she gives her all to her teammate Femke Bol. She is training for the last 100 meters on the light purple athletics track at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. She ran third on the straight in the final of the 4x400m mixed relay.

But Boll wasn’t done yet. First, she was getting closer and closer to the British finalist, and fifty meters from the finish, she caught up to her. Meanwhile, the American athlete was breaking down for her. Boll kept pushing, ignoring her sore legs, keeping a steady pace, and then sprinted across the finish line at full speed. First. Gold.

The new Olympic champions of the 4x400m mixed relay are the Netherlands, and it’s amazing. Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver, Isaya Klein Ikkink and Femke Bol are the best in the world. Now, everything is going right in areas where things used to go wrong – fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, or Bol’s fall from first place in the 2023 World Cup final in Budapest. Afterwards, the athletes stood on the track and shook their heads. “It doesn’t make sense,” Klaver said over and over again, her hands on her head in disbelief.

An Olympic medal seemed further away than ever a week ago when Limaven Bonevacia had to withdraw from the Games due to injury. “The timing is terrible and we find it very annoying,” Claver said after the semifinals about the absence of the Netherlands’ fastest men’s 400m runner. “We miss him but we have two other good boys.”

Bonevacia’s injury means Omara can make his Olympic debut. The 23-year-old sprinter was born in Zoetermeer and moved to Uganda when he was seven. His mother is Dutch and his father is Ugandan, so he can choose which country to represent. In April, he decided to wear orange. “Three months ago, I didn’t know I would be here, it’s very strange for me,” he said afterwards, with a red, white and blue flag around his neck. He apologized for his poor Dutch. He did not want to talk about his side’s luck because of Bonevacia’s injury. „I deserve to be here.”

First Golden Man

After the Dutch team came out of the catacombs together, Eugene O’Mara could start the final as the first runner. He was the last of all the runners to enter the starting position. He took off like a rocket, although the others caught up a little in the last 100 meters. Then it was Lieke Klaver’s turn.

Claver is now known to be able to start fast. She also now runs from fifth to second in just half a lap. In the last corner she has to go out but that doesn’t seem to bother her. She takes third place replacing Isaya Klein Ikkink who dropped to fourth for the round but is within striking distance of her country on the podium.

Then it was Femke Bol’s turn, and she started an incredible chase that she had begun to master. She also achieved this result in the women’s 4x400m relay in the World Cup final last year. Bol’s split time of 47.93 seconds was the eighth fastest in the history of the women’s relay. The Dutch team’s result was only 0.02 seconds faster than the world record set by the United States the day before. O’Mara and Klein Ekink became the first Dutch men to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field in one fell swoop.

Me, me, me

Boll said afterwards that she prepared for the final with the help of a coach and psychologist. “I wanted to be ready for anything.” So she knew the final Belgian would start slowly, and she would have to go with the Brits when she passed the Belgians. “I read it easily, and then I felt like I was getting closer to the U.S. Then it was just hunt, hunt, hunt.”

In the final hundred meters, Boll poured out all the frustration of the past few years. “I just thought: I have to get this anger out,” she said of her new, successful drive to catch up. This time, the four athletes had agreed in the morning that they would not go home without a medal. O’Mara had even chosen the colors. “I said: We are not going for bronze or silver.”

“We do this together,” Claver said. In her view, this proves the effectiveness of the Dutch training method of mixing a large number of 400m runners in Papendahl. “That’s also the most enjoyable part of this.”

Boll heightened the atmosphere in the stadium, the 80,000 fans growing louder as the match wore on. “I’ve been to a lot of full stadiums, but this one is very special.” Boll drew energy from it, and from all the Dutch flags, so many orange in the stands. “I think it’s really unprecedented.”

Boer’s final run was truly unprecedented. She said she had seen Claver gesturing from 80 meters away. “It was like: ‘Come on, come on,’ and I thought: ‘Yeah, keep running.'” Boer Niederland is off to a good start in Olympic track and field, where she will compete in the women’s 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. “It couldn’t have gone any better,” she said, before preparing to leave. She has to go again on Sunday.

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