Femke Bol of the Netherlands will make her highly-anticipated 2024 debut in the 400m at the Meeting Metz Moselle Athelor, part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour on February 3.

Bol is coming off a spectacular 2023 season, which included a 49.26 victory at the Dutch Indoor Championships and repeat wins in the 400m and 4x400m at the European Indoor Championships. 

She was even more sensational at the close of the outdoor season, when she took home gold in the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m at the World Championships in Budapest and the Diamond League title in the 400m hurdles. She finished the year unbeaten in 20 flat 400m races.

As she gears up for the push toward the Paris Olympics this summer, her eyes this winter are squarely on the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. 

In looking back on Bol’s sub-50 indoors last year, her coach, Laurent Meuwly, told Telesport, “That was an almost flawless race. Now, she has improved even further, but breaking that record again requires near perfection. Our current focus is not on the record but on securing the world title in Glasgow.”

Bol and her group have been training in South Africa and things appear to be going well. Her teammate, Lieke Klaver, opened her season with a world-leading time of 50.54 at the Ostrava Indoor Gala on January 30 and will be in the field for this race. And, judging by social media, Bol also appears to be in tremendous shape. 

What that yields, will begin to be seen here. Bol is also scheduled to compete in Lievin on February 10 and then the Dutch Indoor Championships Feb 17-18.

There will be plenty of other attractive races to watch in Metz.

In the women’s 60m hurdles, Tobi Amusan of Nigeria will take on two-time European champion Nadine Visser of the Netherlands. Amusan, the 100m hurdles world record holder, opened her season with a national-record and world No. 2 7.77 in Astana. Visser is coming off a runner-up finish in Ostrava, where she ran 7.93.

In the women’s 800m, World Championships 1500m silver medalist Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia will take on Jemma Reekie of Great Britain and Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi in the season-openers for the latter two. Welteji, who is coming off a world-leading 4:23.76 1500m win in Astana, will need to run much quicker than her 2:02.64 indoor best to trump the likes of Reekie and Nakaayi, who have both own sub-1:58 indoor PRs.

The men’s 60m hurdles will see Jason Joseph of Switzerland, the reigning European champion, take on three-time World Indoor silver medalist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Aurel Manga of France.

The men’s 3000m field will include Yann Schrub of France, who recently won the European Cross-Country Championships, and Dominic Lobalu of Switzerland. Schrubb set his personal best of 7:40.54 here last year.

In the men's pole vault, American Chris Nilsen will taken countrymen Matt Ludwig and Jacob Wooten, Thibault Collet and Alioune Sene of France and China's Bokai Huang.

Isaac Nader of Portugal, fresh off running a world lead in Ostrava, will be the favorite in the men's 1500m, but will be challenged by Adam Czerwinski of Poland (3:47.49 SB) and Teddies Semi of Ethiopia (3:33.59 PB).

The women's 3000m field will be headlined by Ethiopia's Ejgayehu Taye, the World Championships bronze medalist in the 10,000m and bronze medalist in this event at the 2022 World Indoor Championships. Her personal best of 8:26.77 is almost 15 seconds faster than that of her next closest competitor, countrywoman Ayla Dagnachew, the 2021 World U20 champion at 800m.