"I just would like to have a smooth race"- Femke Bol shares her approach before 400m hurdles season opener at Stockholm Diamond League

The Dutch track and field champion Femke Bol is getting ready to compete in her 400m hurdles season opener at the Stockholm Diamond League aka Bauhaus Galan, set to commence on Sunday, June 2. The runner is looking forward to 'a smooth race' in the Swedish capital.

Bol, widely considered one of the most dominant hurdlers, has won two world championship titles and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. She has also clinched three Diamond League final victories and is a two-time world indoor champion.

Bol also shattered her own 400-meter world record this year during the World Athletics Indoor Championships after clocking 49.17 seconds, 0.07 seconds shy of her previous World Record.

Now the sprinter is set to make a return to her 400-meter hurdles endeavors nearly nine months later. Ahead of the event, Femke Bol appeared for a press conference where she was asked about her feelings for the first race of the year (hurdles).

"The first one is always a bit feeling how it goes. So, think I just would like to have a smooth race and see how this is going," she said.

Wanda Diamond League shared the video on their X handle (formerly Twitter) on Saturday and wrote:

"'The first one is always a bit feeling how it goes.' Femke Bol is an open book about how she approaches her first outdoor 400m hurdles race of the season at #StockholmDL."

A brief look into Femke Bol's Diamond League wins

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Femke Bol has remained in the headlines ever since her U20 and U23 days, as she broke national records in both of the aforementioned categories. To add more to it, she also won the 2019 European U20 Championships and kept excelling in one competition at a time. The runner boasts numerous accolades, including three Diamond League trophies.

2021 was the year that witnessed her dominance in the Diamond League as she won Florence, Oslo, Stockholm, Gateshead 2, and Lausanne meets, and then lifted the trophy in the finals that took place in Zurich. The following year, she again replicated the same performance in 400m hurdles and won the Zurich finals after triumphing in the Rome, Oslo, Stockholm, and Lausanne legs.

Last year marked her winning the Diamond League trophy for the third consecutive season. She was declared the winner in the Eugene finals after a winning streak at the Florence, Oslo, Lausanne, London, and Brussels rounds.