Olympic silver medallist Jess Hull has missed Diamond League glory by 0.03 seconds after running out of steam in the dying moments of Thursday’s women’s 1500m final in Zurich.
The Australian was leading by ten metres heading into the home straight at Letzigrund Stadium before running out of gas in the last 50 metres, with Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir beating her to the line in a photo finish. The exhausted 28-year-old, having miscalculated her energy reserves, collapsed to the track following the race.
Compatriot Linden Hall finished third with a time of 3:57.44 for an Australian double podium, while Chepchirchir posted a season-best time of 3:56.99.
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“It was coming on with about 110 meters to go,” Hull later explained.
“I’d never felt like that before, it was a bit of a strange one. I lost my legs a little bit.”
She continued: “Today I just wanted to run hard, I wanted to run fast. I probably went a little too hard from the bell and I lost my legs a little bit in the home straight.
“At the end of the day, I’m just pretty tired right now and I think that’s just the training load. If anything, I ran a very good 13 or 14 hundred tonight and the last hundred will come when I freshen up, which I’m well and truly ready for.”
The result meant that Hull, who won races in Stockholm, Paris and Lausanne earlier this season, missed out on joining high jumper Nicola Olyslagers, hurdler Sally Pearson and pole vaulter Nina Kennedy on an illustrious list of Australian women to claim a Diamond League title.
If Hull had won the event, it would have opened the door for a fourth Australian to compete in the women’s 1500m at the upcoming world championships in Tokyo.
“(Hull) completely misjudged it,” British middle-distance champion Steve Cram said on BBC.
“I’ve never seen that before. Jess completely ran out of gas.
“You’ve got to know you’ve got enough in reserve when you get to 300m, 200m to go. She’s got that experience, but with 200m (to go) she was still heading for a time of 3:55. I haven’t seen anything like that from Jess in a long time.
“It was a strange race.”
Elsewhere in Zurich, Australians Matthew Denny and Mackenzie Little both placed fourth in the men’s discus and women’s javelin respectively.
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