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Jess Hull has made history by breaking the Oceania record and becoming the first Australian woman to qualify for the 800m final at the World Athletics Championships.
Having already picked up a bronze in her favoured 1500m, the 28-year-old recorded a time of 1:57.15 and placed third in her semi-final heat in Tokyo on Friday night.
“I’ve known that time was in there since April,” she said after the race.
“When I ran 1:58 in Jamaica and we hadn’t done a ton of 800m specific work I thought I could get something like that out there.”
The 1500m Olympic silver medallist only made the semis of the two-lap race after successfully appealing when she was shoved over in the opening lap of her heat.
She was drawn in a loaded semi against Kenyan Lilian Odira and Swiss runner Audrey Werro.
Odira won the semi in 1:56.85 and Hull was third in 1:57.17 — enough to claim one of the two non-automatic qualifying spots.
She beat the Australian record of 1:57.67 set by Claudia Hollingsworth last month in Poland.
Hull is the first Australian woman to hold both the 1500m and 800m national records at the same time.
Young gun Hollingsworth and 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Abbey Caldwell were both eliminated in the semi-finals.
— With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press.
