Sydney Track Classic: Jessica Hull favourite to defend her National 3000m title

Published Sat 09 Mar 2024

After a record-breaking tour across American and Europe over the last month, Jessica Hull returns to the scene of one of her finest performances in 2023, the Sydney Track Classic.

On Saturday March 23, at ES Marks/Sydney Athletics Field, Jessica Hull will compete in the Australian 3000m championships held as part of the Sydney Track Classic. Last year Hull was phenomenal. After receiving pacing help to 1000m, she ran solo to the finish to win by 20 seconds in 8:36.03 - an Australian record and also breaking the 33-year-old Australian Allcomers record – the fastest time on Australian soil.

A year on, Hull is at the next level. Over the last month she has twice broken her National 3000m records and once her 1500m/mile records. In Glasgow last weekend, against the globe’s best at the World Indoor Championships, she placed an outstanding fourth in the 3000m, her highest individual global result.

But at the Sydney Track Classic on March 23, Hull may not have it all her own way with a couple of Aussies in similar superb form. Last month in Melbourne, Newcastle’s Rose Davies clocked a stunning 14:57.54 time in the 5000m to win the Maurie Plant Meet race – becoming just the fourth fastest in Australian history. In second was South Australia’s Izzi Batt-Doyle joining Davies under 15 minutes. Both will be formidable competition for Jessica Hull in Sydney.