Paris Olympics 2024: Australian runner Jessica Hull wins silver in women’s 1500m final
Australian runner Jessica Hull has won an emotional breakthrough silver medal in the final of the women’s 1500m — the country’s first on the track in more than a decade.
Hull ran second to Kenyan legend Faith Kipyegon, who became the second athlete after Usain Bolt to twice defend a track-and-field gold medal, and ahead of Great Britain’s Georgia Bell.
The 27-year-old ran a time of 3.52:56, the second-fastest by an Australian athlete ever.
It sealed the first medal on the track for the nation since hurdles star Sally Pearson’s triumph in London, 12 years ago.
Kipyegon ran a 3:51.29, nestling herself in the breakaway group and then powering past fellow medal fancies on the final lap.
Hull settled into a position just forward of the middle of the pack in a strung-out field setting a roaring pace through the first two laps.
Then a group of eight, that also included Kipyegon emerged to take them towards the business end. The Kenyan and the Australian were virtually shoulder-to-shoulder when they took the bell.
Kipyegon pushed away with 300m to race and Hull, who kept with her until the final 100, then held off a surging field to win her silver medal.
Australia’s first-ever Olympian, Edwin Flack, and John Landy — who did it on home soil in 1956 — are the only two Australians to win gold in the 1500m.
More to come.
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