Albion Park runner Jessica Hull continues to make every post a winner on her way to competing in the Paris Olympics.
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On Saturday night the 27-year-old did reigned supreme to win the Australian star-studded Sydney Track Classic 3000m championships.
The win came just six weeks after Hull created another piece of history when she recorded the sixth fastest time in history in the 3000m short track event at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Tour in Boston with a time of 8:24.93.
Hull blitzed the Australian and Oceania record in the process.
Her latest win in Sydney was just as special, with the Australian record-holder making a commanding move at the bell to stretch away from the field in 8:37.18, as Georgia Griffith (VIC) closed hard in her 3000m debut to claim silver in 8:37.91 and Rose Davies (NSW) landed bronze in 8:39.81.
"I had to try and do something uncomfortable tonight and I felt like I held my nerve out there, there were a few times where I was thinking it would be so much easier if I just go, and I think practicing that finish is going to help me," Hull said.
The Sydney Track Classic at E.S Marks Athletics Field also witnessed a pair of relay records tumble thanks to the nation's fastest women.
Australia's sprinters lit up the track with a new national 4x100m record of 42.94-seconds, with the quartet of Ebony Lane (VIC), Bree Masters (QLD), Ella Connolly (NSW) and Torrie Lewis (QLD) reaping the rewards of the relay program when shattering the 24-year record.
Joining forces ahead of the 2024 World Athletics Relay Championships to be held in the Bahamas this May - a vital Paris Olympic-qualifying opportunity - the team anchored by Australia's fastest woman Lewis delivered a breakthrough run.
"I think we were all hoping to get the record but all we wanted tonight was a clean race and for us to run our best. We all knew we could do it with the times we have been running this season," Lewis said.
Tasked with setting the tone with a hot start, Lane delivered the perfect punch:
"Because we have been on camps and changed with so many people, we have learned to adapt and trust each person we are changing with or receiving from. As a group, not just this team but as a squad, we have a good friendship and will get it done if we trust each person."
The junior girls followed suit with an Australian Under 20 record of their own, as Chelsea Scolyer (TAS), Olivia Dodds (WA), Zara Hagan (QLD) and Jessica Milat (VIC) roared around the track in a time of 44.34 - continuing to build ahead of the 2024 World Under 20 Championships to be held in Lima, Peru.
The Sydney Track Classic concludes the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Summer Series, with athletes now focused on the Australian Athletics Championships taking place from April 11-19 in Adelaide.
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
