After clocking 1:59.07 in Metz on Sunday, a Dutch indoor record in her debut at the distance, Femke Bol will not race another 800 indoors this season. Her coach, Laurent Meuwly, confirmed this week that the plan was always limited to a single test run.
“The plan was always to only do one 800m race and one 600m race,” Meuwly wrote on X, making it clear there was no sudden change of heart. “We simply wanted to do a proper test and gather information for the outdoor season.”
So yes, the 800 looked promising. But no, we won’t see it again until summer.
Just to make the communication clear: it was always our plan to race only one time on 800m and one time on 600m during this indoor season.
— Laurent Meuwly (@LaurentMeuwly) February 10, 2026
We are fully aware how the preparation is important for this new event. We just wanted to have a good test and to get informations towards… https://t.co/ktVqjyGQ25
A fast time and useful lessons
Bol’s 1:59.07 in Metz was more than just solid. It was a statement. Breaking two minutes in your first indoor 800 is no small feat, even for a global champion stepping up from the 400.
But Meuwly said the race also showed how different the event really is.
“Femke still had a little too much respect for the 800m,” he told EME News. “You can see that in her split times. On her third 200m she was slower than on the final lap.”
That detail matters. The 800 is unforgiving. Go out too hard and you pay. Hold back too much and you’re boxed in. For an athlete who built her reputation dominating the 400 hurdles, it is a different rhythm and a different kind of suffering.
The indoor outing in Metz was designed to gather data. It did exactly that.
The focus now: 600m in Liévin
Next up is something even more unusual.
Bol will race the 600m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Liévin on Feb. 19. It is a distance rarely contested at major championships, but one that sits neatly between her old specialty and her new one.
And the stakes could be significant.
Organizers in Liévin have already floated the possibility of Bol chasing the fastest 600m ever run. The unofficial world best stands at 1:23.41, set in 2023 by Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m champion.
That name is important. If Bol’s long-term plan is to become a serious 800m contender outdoors, Hodgkinson is one of the athletes she will eventually have to beat.
A fast 600 would not settle that debate, but it would send a message.
Bol’s decision also means she will skip the individual 800. at the World Indoor Championships in Torún, Poland, from March 20 to 22.
She did qualify, thanks to her national record in Metz. But qualifying was never the goal.
Meuwly has emphasized that preparation for this new chapter matters more than chasing medals indoors. The shift away from the 400 hurdles, the event that made Bol one of the sport’s biggest stars, is being handled carefully.
There is still one possible twist.
Bol could line up in the 4x400m relay in Torún. She has not ruled that out. And emotionally, the event still means a lot to her.
“The 4×400 is in my heart; I really want to keep doing it,” she previously told NOS.
The Dutch women are the reigning world and European indoor champions in the relay, and Bol has long been the anchor who turns tight races into gold medals.
If she runs, it would not be about testing a new distance. It would be about something familiar.
