BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — They are the two best runners for the Netherlands. They were both in the lead, only a few tantalizing strides from gold medals. First, endurance maestro Sifan Hassan stumbled and fell. Then, super-fast Femke Bol did, too.
All that speed, and not a thing to show for it on a trippy opening day at world championships for the Dutch.
“I was feeling pretty great,” Bol said after falling and face-planting onto the track on a humid Saturday night in Hungary. “Then, I'm not sure.”
Bol was holding off America's Alexis Holmes in the backstretch when she tumbled to the track and her baton went flying across the finish line (but she didn't), leaving the Netherlands with a “DNF” — did not finish — in the mixed 4x400 meter relay. The Americans took the gold.
Only a few minutes earlier, Hassan was trying to pick up the first leg on her quest for three medals. In the last lap of the women's 10,000, she had streaked past Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia and was holding her off. But Tsegay closed, and as they reached the final few steps, Hassan went tumbling.
That's how two women who have accounted for 10 medals for the Netherlands at worlds and Olympics over the past eight years ended up with zero on opening night in Budapest.
“I was controlling,” Hassan said. “I think maybe in the last 20 meters, we touched each other and I lost balance and I fell down.”
A half hour after her tumble, Bol was still in shock — a scrape on her face still fresh.
“The last meters I started to go and, of course, you get lactic” acid buildup, Bol said. “I just couldn't hit my stride like I normally do and I think I cramped up and I felt someone next to me, and then I was on the ground.”
The good news for both is that there will be more chances.
Hassan came in trying to attempt the same triple she did two years ago at the Olympics, when she won bronze in the 1,500 and golds in the 5,000 and 10,000.
Bol, who anchored the Netherlands to a silver medal in this race at last year's worlds, is also one of the world's best 400-meter hurdlers. But she has bronze (Tokyo Olympics) and silver (2022 worlds) in that race because she has been pitted against Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who has set world records at both of those meets.
McLaughlin-Levrone pulled out of this week's championships with a knee injury, making Bol the favorite.
She has two days to get past the hurt before hurdles heats start Monday.
Hassan only has one. Her next race is the semifinals of the 1,500 meters on Sunday, which is one of Hungary's biggest national holidays: St. Stephen's Day.
In the Netherlands, Saturday will be remembered for something else.
“Maybe it’s National Fall-Down Day,” Hassan said.
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