Albion Park runner Jessica Hull remains confident she is on track for a big breakthrough at the Paris Olympics after sticking to her guns in a red-hot women’s 1500m final at the world championships.
Front-running Faith Kipyegon further embellished her legend on Tuesday in Budapest.
The Kenyan successfully defended her title in a remarkable time of three minutes 54.87 seconds – and few would bet against her doubling up in the 5000m later in the championships.
The minor medals went to Ethiopia’s Dirbie Welteji and Dutch great Sifan Hassan in a final of the highest quality.
Barring some unforeseen mishap, Kipyegon will again be the near-unbackable favourite to win a third straight Olympic 1500m crown next year in the French capital.
But Hull – who dipped under the four-minute mark for the second time in three days with a run of 3:59.54 to finish seventh – insists her best is yet to come.
“After the semi we said that is 12 months away,” said Hull, who ran a controlled race, rather than going to the front and running the risk of blowing up.
“If you look at Faith, Sifan, Ciara (Mageean) and Laura (Muir), they are 29 or 30 and I am 26 and I think we are starting to see the peaks a bit later.
“So let’s pivot, let’s be mature and race where we are at as a 26-year-old and know that this next Olympic cycle is my peak.
“It’s the same result as a year ago but I am a different athlete and I am proud of it.
“I have gone away from working on my speed the last three or four years since coming out of college.
“… I have seen a massive jump already but you need years of that stuff. So another year of working on my weakness is going to turn it into a strength.”
AAP
