Australian Jessica Hull is desperately hoping that the women's 1500m final at the world championships is super fast.
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Hull is now an accomplished tactician, as evidenced in the semi-final on Sunday in Budapest when she maintained her spot in the top six qualifying spots throughout a red-hot encounter.
She readily admits that Kenyan world record holder Faith Kipyegon is the best of alltime, while Dutch runner Sifan Hassan is also a global force to be reckoned with over a variety of distances.
But having stopped the clock at three minutes 57.85 seconds in the semi - just half a second outside her PB - Hull is ready to rumble in the final in Budapest early Wednesday AEST.
"Having still qualified for the final and immediately being like 'oh my God, I made a couple of mistakes', that's a good place to be," said Hull, who was seventh in last year's world 1500m final in Eugene.
"It's never going to get easier, but if you can get through with not quite the perfect race it's probably a good thing.
"To be honest, I want the final to be lightning fast.
"I'm in really good shape and I want to see what that looks like. I really hope I race faster.
"I've got 48 hours so I'm pretty confident I can recover in that time and hope I get to pull a PB out in the final."
Hull expects Ethiopian duo Birke Haylom and Diribe Welteji to make it a chaotic race in a bid to disrupt Kipyegon, who has already broken the 1500m, mile and 5000m world records this year.
They're not afraid to have a go, even if it means our last 400 is pretty rough and pretty painful and not very glamorous," said the 26-year-old Australian.
"It's just a matter of we have to take a chance and see what we can do.
"... When there are championships and tactics involved, anything can happen and I think you have to believe that you have a chance, otherwise why are you lining up?"
Australian Associated Press
