{"id":380269,"date":"2024-03-28T20:37:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T21:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=380269"},"modified":"2024-03-29T04:03:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T04:03:18","slug":"iron-sharpens-iron-aussie-olympic-bolter-wins-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=380269","title":{"rendered":"'Iron sharpens iron': Aussie Olympic bolter wins thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Olympic<\/a> bolter Jesse Hunt became a national athletics<\/a> champion on Thursday night and declared "iron sharpens iron", embracing the hot competition he faces in the battle for Paris 2024<\/a> selection.<\/p>\n

Hunt and Abbey Caldwell were crowned Australia's 2024 men's and women's mile champions at the Albie Thomas Mile, taking the honours at a lively community meet run by Athletics NSW in Sydney's west.<\/p>\n

Hunt stopped the clock at 3:59.09 to beat Jack Anstey (3:59.26) and Riley Bryce (4:01.99) at the Australian Mile Championships, securing his maiden national title on a picturesque night at The Crest Athletics Track.<\/p>\n

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Caldwell cruised to victory in 4:30.50 to lead home Lauren Ryan (\ufeff4:32.19), the newly minted Australian 10,000m record holder<\/a>, and in third place Maudie Skyring (4:32.50).<\/p>\n

At the same athletics track a month earlier, Hunt had propelled himself into the Olympic selection conversation by running 3:33.64 at the NSW Milers<\/a>, falling just short of the 3:33.50 Paris 2024 entry standard.<\/p>\n

He's jostling for one of three 1500m spots with Oliver Hoare, Stewart\ufeff McSweyn, Cameron Myers, Adam Spencer and Jye Edwards.<\/p>\n

\"Jesse<\/p>\n

"Iron sharpens iron and it's great to be in that company. It makes us better," Hunt told Wide World of Sports at the track after his victory.<\/p>\n

"I'm just continuing to stay grounded; not look too far head, not look left and right and just focus on myself.<\/p>\n

"I'm really excited about where I'm at, and if you'd have told me six months ago that I'd be this close and in the conversation at least for that selection [for Paris 2024], I wouldn't have believed you.<\/p>\n

"So I'm excited to … be in front of the selectors and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks."<\/p>\n

Hunt was born and raised in Perth, studied at the University of North Carolina and is now based in Melbourne with the Oceanian branch of On Athletics Club, coached by Australian running great Craig Mottram.<\/p>\n

\"Abbey<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old entered this year as a 3:37.53 1500m runner and a 3:58.46 miler, but has since chopped his personal bests down to 3:33.64 and 3:53.78.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's a great feeling, these are the things we train for," Hunt said of becoming a national champion.<\/p>\n

"Coming back home after five years in the US, you want to start building the resume, and this is all part of it. I'm just trying to stack on wins and experience, and coming into nationals [taking place in Adelaide in April] it's a really big thing\ufeff. Hopefully that continues to snowball in the next few weeks."<\/p>\n

Caldwell\ufeff's national victory follows her 1500m triumph at the 2022 Australian Track and Field Championships.<\/p>\n

\"Abbey<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Victorian is a brilliant talent in the 800m, 1500m and mile, and will make her Olympic debut in Paris.<\/p>\n

She won 1500m bronze at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, as well as relay bronze at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Thursday night also saw\ufeff Olympic 1500m finalist Jessica Hull step down in distance and take out the women's 800m, winning with a personal best of 2:03.02 on her home track. Imogen Barrett (2:03.50) and Bendere Oboya (2:05.17) rounded out the podium.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/road-to-paris\/playlists\/podcast\/embed?style=cover&size=square<\/a><\/p>\n

Rising star Luke Boyes took victory in the men's 800m, chalking up a personal best of 1:45.45 and getting to within a second of the 1:44.70 Olympic entry standard. Tokyo 2020 sensation Peter Bol \ufefffinished second in 1:46.70, returning from an injury lay-off for his first race since August's world titles<\/a>, while Myers finished third in 1:48.19.<\/p>\n

The Australian Track and Field Championships will take place in Adelaide from April 11-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Olympic bolter Jesse Hunt became a national athletics champion on Thursday night and declared "iron sharpens iron", embracing the hot competition he faces in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":380271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=380269"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380275,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380269\/revisions\/380275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/380271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=380269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=380269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=380269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}