Tripped and bleeding one day, a national record and world titles final the next for Jess Hull

Tokyo: On Tuesday night Jess Hull won a bronze medal. On Thursday night she was tripped, got her leg cut open by another runner’s spikes and fell to the track bleeding but finished the race last.

On Friday night, allowed to race the semi-final after a protest was upheld over the trip, Hull, with a bandaged leg, broke the national record and became the first Australian to make an 800-metre final at a world championship.

That’s quite the week, and it’s not over. On Sunday night she runs the 800m final. Judging by her week, anything could happen.

“I mean, a bronze medal, a record, [falling over]... I’m not one to be dramatic, but this championships has been quite dramatic by my own standards,” she said.

Her run of 1:57.15 not only broke young teammate Claudia Hollingsworth’s national record by 0.52s, she eliminated Hollingsworth from the final. Hollingsworth had run fourth in her semi in a time of 1:59.50 and was relying on other results to fall her way to make the final.

And it’s not even her serious event. The Olympic 1500-metre silver medallist from Paris who added a 1500m bronze medal here in Tokyo this week just runs 800s for fun, and because she’s here.

“I think that’s dangerous in a way, like I don’t have any pressure or any expectation on me in this event, and I just get to kind of run pretty free, and that’s quite dangerous when you’re out there amongst the women that are expected to do things and expected to run fast and well, so yeah, I just, I get to enjoy it, and I’m running free and having fun,” Hull said.

“Tonight, I just thought, I’ll make the most of it … I mean, I’ve got a second chance, but I’ve also had three rounds of the 1500s in my legs, so to come out tonight and run a pass and run a PB and earn my place in the final, I’m really excited. You’re essentially doing this for a bit of fun.”

Still, she could not have expected the turnaround from the moment she was spiked and hit the ground on Thursday night.

“I’m fine. It’s just a bit of a very superficial wound that bled a lot, and looked a lot worse than it was,” she said.

Javelin thrower Dr Mackenzie Little, meanwhile, did three nights in emergency at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, was on call for another night, and then did a Sunday night shift. Then she took off her stethoscope and boarded a plane for Tokyo.

A model of efficiency, she arrived in Tokyo, threw the javelin 65.54 metres, straight over the automatic qualifying mark of 62.50 metres, and more than three metres further than her best throw all year, and qualified for Saturday night’s finals.

There is a thing about asking a busy person if you want to get something done. Little is a busy person, and she gets things done.

“Dragging myself to training after a long day’s work – I don’t want to say that I want it to be worth it, but I just want to enjoy this.

“I threw that throw, and it was light, easy, fantastic and it just felt so good.

“I turned around, looked at my coach, and it was like, ‘Thank you’. We’ve had to work really hard, and it’s kind of coming together.”

Lyles equals Usain Bolt’s record

Noah Lyles can’t win it at the Olympics, but he cannot be beaten over 200 metres at the World Championships.

Lyles won a fourth world championship gold medal and equalled Usain Bolt’s haul of world golds over that distance.

Bolt also has the world record for the distance (19.19s) and a cupboard of other gold that would make Donald Trump envious, so Lyles has a way to go for parity with the greatest of all time. Still, he is compiling a strong CV at the worlds.

At the Olympics, the world champion has struggled to replicate his golden touch. Lyles has twice won Olympic bronze, first in Tokyo then in Paris last year.

“We got here and came to Tokyo to rewrite 2021, and this year we are winning gold baby,” Lyles said after his 19.52s run to win gold from fellow American Kenny Bednarek (19.58) and Jamaican Bryan Levell in 19.64s.

Moments after Lyles came from behind down the straight to win, compatriot Melissa Jefferson-Wooden dominated the field to claim the sprint double.

At the start of the week she won the 100m gold and here with her 21.68s 200m she took the second sprint gold. She beat Briton Amy Hunt by more than half a second.

The context of the men’s final for Australia’s young 200m star Gout Gout is that the task ahead of him can be measured in this: the first five men to cross the line in the final all broke 20 seconds.

Gout is yet to legally break that mark. He did run 19.85 at the national tiles, but the tailwind was just too strong to be legal. He said Thursday night he is determined to break 20 soon. To be a serious world contender, regularly breaking that 20 second mark is critical.

Two of the three men who beat him across the line in his semi-final – Levell and Letsile Tebogo – came third and fourth. Gout is not a long way off the world’s best, and at 17 he is still a long way off his own best.

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