{"id":155142,"date":"2025-09-19T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/155142\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:58:09","slug":"how-jess-hulls-800m-side-quest-could-see-her-stun-at-the-2025-world-athletics-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/155142\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jess Hull’s 800m ‘side quest’ could see her stun at the 2025 World Athletics Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jess Hull’s progression to the World Athletics Championships 800-metre final is nothing short of remarkable.<\/p>\n

Hull is renowned as a 1,500m specialist with an Olympic silver and, this week, a world championships bronze to her name.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but she is the world record holder in the little-run 2,000m, holds the national record in the mile and indoor 3,000m and, since the last world championships in Budapest, has only raced the 800m six times compared to 20 1,500m races.<\/p>\n

No wonder Hull called the 800m her “fun little side quest” at these championships.<\/p>\n

“It was just a free swing,” Hull said.<\/p>\n

Jess Hull breaks Australian record in blistering 800m semi<\/a><\/p>\n

Jess Hull has broken the Australian record in the semifinals of the women’s 800m. Mackenzie Little qualifies for the javelin final with one giant throw.<\/p>\n

“There’s no expectation on me in this event, it’s just an extra bit of fun.<\/p>\n

“I get to enjoy the stadium and the moment, that makes it really free and that’s a very dangerous athlete when they’re just running with freedom.”<\/p>\n

This “side quest” almost came unstuck at the very first level, an innocuous tangling of legs in Thursday night’s heat<\/a> resulting in a bloody gash on the side of her leg and a nervous wait as to whether she would even be allowed to line up in the semifinal on Friday.<\/p>\n

Every quest needs some kind of jeopardy, a risk to the hero of the tale.<\/p>\n

Hull picked herself up, dusted herself down and raced through to ensure that she would be allowed a spot in the semifinal if any protest were successful.<\/p>\n

It was<\/a>. Her rivals must have wished that she stayed down.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/p>\n

Jess Hull ran a supremely well-thought race in the semifinal. (Getty Images: Hannah Peters)<\/p>\n

Hull came out slowly in the semifinal, unwilling to get involved in that first-bend tangle, sitting dead last a quarter of the way through the race, working around the outside of the pack on the far bend.<\/p>\n

By the bell, she was third, sitting on the shoulder of Audrey Werro and Tsige Duguma and pushing the pace.<\/p>\n

Werro and Duguma had too much power and stayed away from Hull, but the Aussie stayed with them and finished in 1 minute 57.15 seconds, raising her arms with her trademark beaming grin as soon as she realised she had broken the record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By breaking Claudia Hollingsworth’s national record, Hull became the first woman to hold the Australian record in both 800m and 1,500m simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Additionally, just by making Sunday night’s final, the 28-year-old from Albion Park became the first Australian woman to reach the final in the 800 and 1,500 at the same world championships.<\/p>\n

If she wins a medal, she’ll become the first Aussie to win multiple world championship medals in a single event.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/p>\n

Jess Hull is the first Australian woman to hold the national record in the 800m and 1,500m. (Getty Images: Julian Finney)<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a tiny eye on that Australian record last year. I knew I could kind of be capable of a time like that,” Hull said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve done a lot of work on it and I’ve really enjoyed working on it.<\/p>\n

“I sort of even said to dad [and coach Simon Hull] after the 15, ‘Have we gone a bit too speed-based this year, have we lost a tiny bit of endurance?’<\/p>\n

“But he was pretty confident that setting myself up by focusing a bit more in the mid distances this year is where I need to be to kick down the door in the 1,500 in the years to come.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a fun little side quest, and now it’s ended me in a global final, which I’m pretty proud of.<\/p>\n

“But I think ignorance is bliss,” she added.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty naive out there.”<\/p>\n

Sunday’s 800m final will be no place for naivety, with a stellar cast of athletes, including Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson and her training partner, Olympic bronze medallist in the 1,500 Georgia Hunter-Bell.<\/p>\n

\"Keely<\/p>\n

Keely Hodgkinson does not appear to be in a charitable mood. (Getty Images: Julian Finney)<\/p>\n

Then there’s defending world champion Mary Moraa, her sister Sarah Moraa and their compatriot Lilian Odira, with American Sage Hurta-Klecker and Swiss runner Werro making up the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

Only Sarah Moraa and Hurta-Klecker have personal best times slower than Hull’s.<\/p>\n

But Hull thinks that there is room for improvement on her record-breaking run in the final.<\/p>\n

“It was wasn’t a perfect race by any means,” Hull said of her semifinal run.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t really touch lane 1 very often and definitely that last 120 I played it quite safe on the rail.<\/p>\n

“Maybe if I had a little more running room there was a tiny bit more in there, so I’ve got some things to clean up.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I’ve nailed a perfect 800 yet, but I’ve done a pretty good one.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

It will need another “pretty good run” to make progress in the final, with Hull saying her tactics will remain similar for the race.<\/p>\n

“I can’t really do anything too differently to what I did in the first 400 [in the semifinal], ” Hull said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve just got to position myself and run my race.<\/p>\n

“If I just run my race and put myself in it and give myself a chance, who knows what’s possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jess Hull’s progression to the World Athletics Championships 800-metre final is nothing short of remarkable. Hull is renowned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98726,99635,64,63,8913,103572,85,103573,81437],"class_list":["post-155142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-1500m","tag-800m","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jess-hull","tag-middle-distance","tag-sports","tag-tokyo-athletics","tag-world-athletics-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}