Olympic hero Jess Hull has suffered a heartbreaking fall in the home straight of the women’s 1500 final at the Australian Athletics Championship.
The 29-year-old, who won silver at the Paris Games, led with around 60 metres remaining, but then made contact with Claudia Hollingsworth’s foot and tumbled to the floor.
Hollingsworth stayed on her feet and sprinted to victory ahead of Sarah Billings and Abby Caldwell, but had a muted response after crossing the line.
Hull got back to her feet and completed the race, with Hollingsworth quick to greet her at the line.
She could be heard repeatedly saying to Hull: “I’m so sorry.”
Hull put on a brave face as she smiled and consoled Hollingsworth — who was clearly mortified by what had unfolded.
Hull and Caldwell, who was also impeded in the home straight, had the right to appeal which they both elected to do following the result.
Despite their protests being lodged and many believing Hull had been tripped, both were dismissed with the result standing.
It was a case of deja vu for Hull — who tripped and fell during her 800m heat at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
On that occasion, it appeared as though she would be eliminated, before a successful appeal sent her through and she went on to claim eighth place in the final.
But she remained classy in her post-race interview in Sydney on Friday evening, saying: “It was that slow, things happen. I thought I was away, I could see the shadows and I was like ‘I’ve got this’. Then I closed the rail and I went down.
“I don’t know who it was but whoever was trying to come through on the rail just gave me a tap and when you’re going that fast you go down.
“That’s racing, it happens. I’ll be better off for it because maybe don’t let it go that slow next time.”
Earlier in the evening, Lachie Kennedy stormed to a time of 9.96 seconds in his 100-metre heat — breaking the 10-second barrier for the first time and missing out on a national record by just three hundredths.
