Remember this name: Linden Hall.
She is a Victorian middle-distance runner who has just become the fastest 1500m exponent in Australian history, after her run in Melbourne the other night at the Box Hill Classic was so good she stopped the clock at 3.59.67.
Yep, read that time again.
She is the first Australian female in history born and raised here to run under the magical, mythical, seemingly impossible four-minute mark for 1500m.
Nearly every single man reading this can't do that. And we know there are NO women in Australia now or ever before who could do it either.
Her run, made even more remarkable by the fact that for the last 700m she did it on her own, after clearing out and being 65m in front of the rest of the field, is currently the second-fastest time recorded in the world this year.
As we quickly approach the Tokyo Olympics, Hall trails only Ethiopian superstar Gudaf Tsegay, who was the bronze medallist from the most recent World Championships.
It means that Hall – who last month showed she was on target for something special when she broke the Australian 1000m record, then last week became the fourth-fastest female in Aussie history over 800m (a race that is far too short for her) – is ready to medal in Tokyo.
"I still can't believe what just happened and what is happening," she said, absolutely awestruck (quite appropriately) by her own performance.
"This will take a long time to sink it. I knew as I entered the back stretch on the last lap that I must be close because the crowd was really yelling loudly and cheering; that just really spurs you on.
"This national record is a big PB and yes, after I ran that 800m time in Brisbane last week, I kinda knew there was something special coming in the 1500m because that's my event. And now that it has, I am so stoked.
"I haven't stopped given people hugs who just want to congratulate me."
https://twitter.com/AthsAust/status/1377567593196789761?s=20
Australian men over 1500m have collectively become a global force this year, with five of them now getting under 3:36. Jye Edwards ran a heartbreaking but rather impressive 3:35:63 in the men's section to win at the same meet as Hall ran her record.
The Olympic qualifying is the hardest it has ever been for Australian men, at 3:35:00. So agonisingly, Edwards missed it by literally one stride. Just one step away from glory and qualifying.
"I have another shot at the nationals in Sydney next weekend, so I will give it another crack but that is my PB and I now know it is very possible to achieve the qualifying," he reasoned.
But missing by scant inches after running his heart out for 1.5km must have hurt. Not since the era of the legendary Olympic gold medallist Herb Elliott in the 1960s has Australia been this strong globally at this coveted distance.
The three men Australia will send for the 1500m to Tokyo (still undecided as to who they are) will make their presence felt and all are capable of making the final. They will have a battle, as everyone does every Olympic year, with the Kenyans but they have the speed and guile to hold their own.
https://twitter.com/David_Tarbotton/status/1377557939880267778?s=20
This Linden Hall, however, is cut from a different cloth.
She can shake the women's division right up.
She is that good.
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