Two national records broken in huge night for Australian athletics

Joshua Mayne

Two national records broken in huge night for Australian athletics image

Jessica Hull (middle)

Australian athletics was on full display at the Monaco Diamond League meet overnight.

Jessica Hull and Peter Bol both crushed national records in their respective events, while Gout Gout continued his winning form

Hull finished third in the women's 1000m.

Her time of 2:30.96 shaved two seconds off the previous Australian record.

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Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir took the win with a 2:29.77 effort, while Hull's fellow countrywoman Sarah Billings came seventh with a personal-best 2:33.17.

"Monaco has been good to me, and I hope to keep coming back in the future," Hull said after the race.

"That was a very good race tonight, and they ran very fast to win.

"It’s an aggressive race and there’s not much time to make up time in the last 200m, so I think it’s important to attack it and be quite aggressive in your approach to it all.

"I certainly was tonight, but that last 80m was probably the longest 80m I’ve had in a very long time, and I got everything I was hoping to out of it."

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Bol placed fourth in the men's 800m.

His 1:42.55 time was more than a second faster than his existing Australian record.

The 31-year-old held his own in one of the fastest editions of the race in Diamond League history, which was won by Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi (1:41.44).

"I was so nervous going into this one with such a fast field," Bol said.

"I was like, ‘I’m the slowest here!’ The pacemaker was almost as fast as I am, but I had to back myself.

"I had an incredible season, incredible overseas campaign. The time I was aiming for was 1:42.5, and I got 1:42.55, so I can’t ask for more than that.

"I’m resilient, I’ve always been. I’ve overcome a lot over the last few years; they were pretty bad for me, but I’m back and I’m better.

"An Australian record, I can’t be any happier."

Gout also joined the Aussie party, taking out the under-23 200-metre event.

In a strong headwind, he recorded a time of 20.10 seconds – 0.08 seconds off the Australian record he set in Ostrava last month.

The 17-year-old finished ahead of Botswana's Busang Collen Kebinatshipi (20.28) and South Africa's Naeem Jack (20.42).

Joshua Mayne

Joshua Mayne is a content producer for The Sporting News currently based in Sydney, Australia. He has previously worked as a newsreader at 2SER and a journalist at Ministry of Sport. Joshua specialises in rugby league, motorsport and tennis. He is still waiting for Arsenal to win the Premier League again.