World Road Running Championships: Hull 5th & McDonald 7th

2 October 2023

World Road Running Championships: Hull 5th & McDonald 7th

NSW’s distance duo Jessica Hull and Morgan McDonald closed their 2023 campaigns with epic performances at the World Road Running Championships in Riga overnight. In contrasting seasons, Hull placed fifth in the women’s mile, while McDonald was seventh in the men’s 5km event.

Competing at her third global championships in just eight months, only four-star Africans, two from Kenyan and two from Ethiopia, could hold off Hull as she clocked 4:32.45 in the road mile. She was fifth at the 1000m mark, passed in 2:49 minutes - six seconds behind the leaders.

“I could tell the pace was a little too fast for me in the first stretch so I had to disconnect from the pack a bit and be a bit more patient,” Hull told Athletics Australia.

It was wise pacing by Hull as all four in the lead pack owned track 1500m PBs under 3:57, including world record holder Faith Kipyegon with an extraordinary best of 3:49.11.

“With 600m to go, I was going to try and pick up one or two spots because I felt like I was closing in on the girls, but they kept it fast in their battle for gold,” she said.

“It’s the same women that I’ve been racing on the track all year but it’s such a different race on the roads.”

In a tremendous year for Jessica Hull, she has in 2023 won bronze at the world cross country championships, was 7th in the 1500m at the world championships and broken four National records.

In total contract, US-based Morgan McDonald was competing in just his fourth race in 2023 due to injury. It was also he second global championship of the year. In eight place mid-way into the 5km event, McDonald was clocking kilometre splits of 2:43, 2:43, 2:45 before closing in 2:42 and 2:36 to move up to seventh at the finish in 13:36 minutes.

“I was super happy with the execution of the race,” he told Athletics Australia. “At 2km I felt pretty decent and felt like I could push on and move through the field a bit, it felt good running hard and I think my last kilometre was my quickest. Having the race play out like that and ending up in seventh, I was super happy.”

Keen observers in the athletics community will see the tremendous performance as McDonald returning to his great form of 2017 to 2019, where he missed two world championship 5000m finals by fractions of a second and won one of the great races on Australian soil, the National 5000m and CG trial on the Gold Coast in 2018.

NSW’s third athlete at the championships, was UTS Norths’ Ed Goddard, proudly making his global debut. A regular at the Athletics NSW winter series, he placed 70th in the half marathon in 65:46. With this experience and a recent 2:12.52 marathon under his belt, he is on track for more major team selections.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Morgan McDonald (Athletics Australia)