Peter Bol chases historic gold as first Australian to run in 800m worlds final

  • Tokyo Olympics hero scrapes into 800m final by 0.09 seconds
  • Bol is the first Australian to reach a world championship 800m final

A model of consistency and self-belief, Peter Bol looks every chance to win Australia’s first-ever 800 metre world championships medal in Eugene. But by his own admission, Bol was lucky to get through to the title race after finishing third and outside the automatic qualifying spots in the opening semi-final.

But having dodged a bullet and advanced as the second non-automatic qualifier by just 0.09 seconds, Bol has again made history, becoming the first Australian man or woman to ever reach a world championships 800m final.

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Javelin star Kelsey-Lee Barber joins Cathy Freeman in history with world title

  • 66.91m throw makes Barber first woman to defend javelin world title
  • Barber joins Cathy Freeman as only Australians to defend a worlds title

Javelin superstar Kelsey-Lee Barber has joined the great Cathy Freeman as the only Australians to successfully defend a world athletics title.

Barber further embellished her reputation as a supreme big-event competitor at Hayward Field on Friday evening with a huge third-round throw of 66.91 metres.

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Dire in Doha: world championships ‘catastrophe’ leaves athletics reeling | Sean Ingle

Empty seats and ghostly silence have been the sad feature of these world championships – it is a PR disaster for the sport

Moments after the greatest 10.83 seconds of her life, the British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith grabbed a union flag from her mother, Julie, and began a lap of honour to celebrate her world championship 100m silver medal. But as she trotted round the 40,000-seat Khalifa stadium in Doha on Sunday night she was greeted by banks of empty seats and a ghostly silence.

Observers reckoned there were no more than 1,000 people still in attendance, and many of them were journalists tapping away to deadline. Asher-Smith’s mother later tweeted she had seen more spectators at England Athletics’ age-group championships in Bedford.

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