Jessica Hull smashes Australian record at Prefontaine Classic to send Paris Olympics warning
Jessica Hull has further enhanced her Paris Olympic medal credentials, smashing the Australian 1500m record in one of the fastest races in the world this year.
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Jessica Hull has further enhanced her Paris Olympic medal credentials, smashing the Australian 1500m record in finishing second at the Prefontaine Classic.
In one of the fastest races in the world this year, the Australian showed her quality in the stacked Diamond League field leaving the likes of Britain’s Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir and America’s 3000m indoor world champion Elle St Pierre in her wake.
Hull lowered her personal best by 1.32sec, clocking a new Oceania record of 3min55,97sec to finish second behind Ethiopia’s world championships silver medallist Diribe Welteji (personal best 3:53.75sec).
“I think it played out pretty well as we sort of thought it might for 1,200m, and then I just had to trust myself somewhere in the last 300,” Hull said.
“Having come close to the win in Doha, I thought I’d just stick to the race plan that would set me up to win and if I was able to pull that off today,
“I knew I’d have to run a very fast time to do it. I focused on what I needed to do to race and I think that’s something that I will carry forward with me.
“Last year I ran 3:57, which is a big PB at this time of year and I stayed there all year.
“I kind of think for that next jump, I need to be a 3:55 woman or faster over and over and over again this year. So, starting here on the 25th of May is really exciting.”
Hull, 27, who cut her teeth in the US college system, has enjoyed returning to Australia and training under the tutelage of her father Simon.
“I think I’ve made a really big jump in training this year and I think a big part of that is going to help me over the last 300, 400 of the race,” Hull said.
“Training is really, really hard, but I’m seeing the benefit and when you come and have a race like that, it makes it a bit easier to go back and put your head down and stick to the grind.
“It’s just a mindset. You just have to put yourself there and if your fitness is there too, it’s gonna match up.
“It’s great confidence booster for Paris. I was so consistent last year at 3:57 and that got me seventh in Budapest (world championships).
“If I look at the landscape of the sport and look at the times that I would need to medal, I need to be consistent at that mid to low 3:50s, so getting a 3:55 on the board today gives me confidence and I think we will find a little bit more throughout the season.”
Former Australian record holder Linden Hall finished 12th (4:01.97sec) while there were several other Australians producing Olympic qualifiers at the Eugene event.
In the women’s 800m, Britain’s Keeley Hodgkinson ran 1:55.78sec, the fastest time in the world this year, to beat Kenyan world champion Mary Moora. Australia’s Catriona Bisset finished sixth with a season’s best time of 1:58.44sec.
“That [800m] final in Paris is going to be insane,” Hodgkinson, a two-time World Championship silver medallist and runner up at the last Olympic Games, said.
In the prestigious Bowerman Mile, Great Britain’s Josh Kerr again took the scalp of Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigsten.
Commonwealth champion Ollie Hoare finished ninth (3:49.11sec) but importantly became the fourth Australian man to register an Olympic 1500m qualifier joining Stewart McSweyn, Adam Spencer and Cameron Myers.
Myers, the Canberra schoolboy, gained invaluable experience in the elite field, finishing 11th in 3:50.15sec.
In the 5,000m, Australia’s Lauren Ryan finished 15th in 15:03.63 as Ethiopian runners swept the top six places, with Tsigie Gebreselama running a new world-leading time of 14:18.76.
Earlier, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet set a world record in the 10,000m, running a stunning 28 minutes, 54.14 seconds to beat the previous record of 29.01.03 set by Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey in 2021.
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