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Femke Bol and Karsten Warholm are tipped to produce record-breaking times in the 400m in Lievin on Wednesday.
The 400m event at the World Intoor Tour in Lievin features a strong field that includes Femke Bol in the women's category and Karsten Warholm in the men's events, who will be gunning for the World and European indoor records in the event.
Bol is in the best form of her life this season, having set a 500m indoor World Record (WR) of 1:05.63 in Boston two weeks ago, and backed it up with a Dutch 400m record of 49.96s in Metz on Saturday to move up to fourth on the all-time indoor list.
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The 22-year-old Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist and world silver medallist will now target to get even closer to Jarmila Kratochvilova's world indoor record of 49.59s that has stood since 1982.
However, her compatriot Lieke Klaver is also in strong form and one of the favourites to push her in running the WR, having reduced her Personal Best to 51.00s in Ostrava to stand fifth in the world list this year.
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There will be a dignified Polish challenge in the form of Natalia Kaczmarek, who has a best of 51.15s, and Anna Kielbasinska, who has run 51.10s.
Karsten Warholm gunning for European Record
For Warholm, he clocked his second-fastest indoor time of 45.31s on his season's debut last month at the meeting named after him in his native Ulsteinvik, Norway, to move second on the 2023 world list.
His time is not far off his PB of 45.05s, with which he won the European indoor title in Glasgow in 2019, equalling the European Record (ER) set by East Germany’s Thomas Schoenlebe in 1988.
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The 26-year-old Olympic Champion and WR holder in the 400m Hurdles will be gunning to surpass the ER by becoming the first European to run sub-45s in the 400m indoors but will face the challenge of Belgium’s Dylan Borlee, who has a best of 46.25s.
Bol and Warholm are capable of achieving these records, which will be major highlights at the meet on Wednesday.
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