Two-time European Athlete of the Year Femke Bol has announced that she will not be competing individually this indoor season.
However, the reigning world and European 400m hurdles champion is still planning to compete on home soil at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships from March 6-9 in the women’s 4x400m relay along with the inaugural mixed 4x400m on the opening day of the event.
In a long post on Instagram, Bol said: “After the last Olympic cycle with years full of amazing competitions indoor and outdoors, we’ve decided to do it a bit different this year. I’m training hard and preparing myself for another successful year on the track, but I also felt that I needed a bit more time away from competing.
“However, I cannot and do not want to miss a chance to compete at a home championship!!! So I will be racing in Apeldoorn at the European Indoor Championships in the relays and lucky enough it’s the first time there’s also a mixed relay!”
Bol has been an instrumental part of Dutch relays teams in recent years, helping the Netherlands to gold at four European Athletics Championships – two indoors and two outdoors – as well as gold at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
And the 24-year-old ran an incredible sub-48 second anchor leg to take the Netherlands from fourth to first in the mixed 4x400m final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Despite the absence of Bol who won individual European indoor gold in 2021 and 2023, the women’s 400m final will still be one of the hottest tickets in town with home favourite Lieke Klaver, who won silver behind Bol at the World and European Athletics Indoor Championships, and Olympic silver medallist Natalia Bukowiecka likely to go head-to-head for the title.