Jess Hull breaks Australian mile record at London Diamond League meet
While Hull and high jumper Eleanor Patterson grabbed runners-up spots at the London Stadium to lead the Australian challenge in front of a 60,000 full house on Saturday, it also proved a landmark day for Newcastle's Rose Davies, who obliterated her own national and Oceanian 5,000m marks while finishing third.
But on another promising afternoon for Australia's athletes, as they started building their preparations for the Tokyo World Championships, there was a setback for young miling sensation Cam Myers, whose promising bid in the meeting-concluding 1,500m ended with an on-track bump.
Olympic metric mile silver medallist Hull's eyes must have lit up when Gudaf Tsegay seemed to be setting a suicidal pace in the mile, but as the Wollongong ace moved up to her shoulder, Ethiopia's former double world champ found an extra gear to win comfortably in a new national record 4 minutes and 11.88 seconds.
Hull's substantial consolation was to lower her own Oceanian mark to 4:13.68.
"I had a lot of distractions, but was just trying to zone into the leader in the second half, but it was a solid run," Hull said.
"Coming in, we were thinking I could run a national record, and I did. I would have liked to have been a little closer to 4:10, but I felt very strong for 4:13.
"A lot of records fell today, so it was a pretty special to be a part of that race."
Earlier on Saturday, Davies clocked 14:31.45 for third behind the Ethiopian duo of Medina Eisa (14:30.57) and Fantaye Belayneh (14:30.90), her run eclipsing her previous national mark of 14:40.83, set in China in April, by more than nine seconds.
Georgia Griffith finished fifth in a huge new personal best 14:32.82 to also smash the former record.
"I was ready for a big race and felt like I responded to the challenge today," Davies said.
"My expectations were a PB [personal best] and I have achieved that so I am really pleased."
Former high jump world champ Patterson was surprised her 1.93 metre clearance was enough to earn her the silver as even Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh had an off-day, allowing British home hope Morgan Lake to win with a 1.96m leap.
"I am very honoured to be known as 'Miss Consistent' as it reflects my aim to be consistently jumping well," Patterson said.
"Today doesn't quite match up to it — but if 1.93 is a bad day, and second, I can't be too mad about it."
Myers, the 19-year-old Canberran phenomenon who has had a stunning year in the senior ranks already while finishing runner-up in Oslo's Dream Mile, looked ready for the next step as he moved sweetly into contention on the final lap of the metric mile.
But about to make his move in fourth, he and Briton George Mills clipped heels, taking each other out of contention, and Myers ended up limping home way down in 13th place in 4:24.03, wondering what might have been as another teenage superstar, Kenya's Phanuel Koech, won in the fastest time ever seen in the UK, 3:28.82.
International highlight of the day may have been Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred smashing her own national St Lucian record while running the fastest 200m in the world this year (21.71 seconds).
Australian hope Torrie Lewis finished last in 23.05.
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