Adopted Novocastrian Jessica Hull, as well as Peter Bol, shattered national records at the Monaco Diamond League at the weekend.
Twelve months to the day, after rewriting the world milestone at the same venue over 2000m, the Wollongong-born Olympian, who now calls Newcastle home, once again proved Monaco brings out her best.
On this occasion, she finished third in the women’s 1000m in 2:30.96, obliterating the previous Australian mark by two seconds.
“Monaco’s been good to me… and I hope to keep coming back in the future,” Hull said.
“That was a very good race and they ran very fast to win.
“It’s an aggressive race and there’s not much opportunity 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 got everything I was hoping to get out of it.”
In 2024, Hull led an historic 2000m race, breaking the world record in 5:19.70, a performance that became a defining moment of her career.
It also buoyed her to silver in Paris just months later.
This year, it was Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir who took the win in 2:29.77, ahead of American Addison Wiley (2:30.71), with Hull’s aggressive attempt at a sub 2:30 time highlighting her grit.
Meanwhile, in one of the fastest 800m races in Diamond League history, Bol delivered the run of his life, placing fourth in 1:42.55.
It smashed his own Australian record by more than one second.
The race also marked an extraordinary leap for Bol, who only dipped under the 1:44 barrier for the first time in April this year at the Australian Athletics Championships.
But, his performance now ranks him within the top 30 on the all-time global list of 800m runners.
Aussie sensation Gout Gout scorched to another win, too, running 20.10 (-1.9) in the under-23 race to continue his meteoric rise on the international stage.
Taking advantage of the school holidays, the 17-year-old stormed home against a world-class junior field including Olympic silver medallist Busang Collen Kepinatshipi (20.28).
The Diamond League next travels to London on 19 July.
For more sports stories:
- Newcastle Football dominates 2025 Community State Youth Championships
- Understrength Storm hands Knights league lesson
- Higgins’ return spurs Knights to impressive NRLW win
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