Australian runner Jess Hull has stormed to an Oceania record in the 1,500 metres at the prestigious Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
The 27-year-old Australian matched up against a stacked field in the Diamond League event, besting Britain's Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir and America's 3,000m indoor world champion, Elle St Pierre into silver.
Hull smashed her personal best by 1.32 seconds, running 3:55.97 to finish second to Ethiopia's World Championship silver medallist Diribe Welteji.
"I think it played out pretty well as we sort of thought it might for 1,200m, and then I just had to trust myself somewhere in the last 300," Hull said.
"Last year I ran 3:57, which is a big PB at this time of year and I stayed there all year.
"I kind of think to that next jump, I need to be a 3:55 woman or faster over and over and over again this year. So, starting here on the 25th of May is really exciting."
Welteji ran a personal best to claim victory in the event, storming home in 3:53.75.
Hull's Australian teammate and former Oceanian record holder Linden Hall ran 4:01.97 to finish 12th.
"I think I've made a really big jump in training this year and I think a big part of that is going to help me over the last 300, 400 of the race," Hull said.
"Training is really, really hard, but I'm seeing the benefit and when you come and have a race like that, it makes it a bit easier to go back and put your head down and stick to the grind.
"It's just a mindset. You just have to put yourself there and if your fitness is there too, it's gonna match up."
In a similarly stacked women's 800m final, Britain's Keeley Hodgkinson ran 1:55.78, the fastest time in the world this year, to beat Kenyan world champion Mary Moora into second.
Australia's Catriona Bisset finished in sixth with a season's best time of 1:58.44.
"That [800m] final in Paris is going to be insane," Hodgkinson, a two-time World Championship silver medallist and runner up at the last Olympic Games, said.
"I just hope to be part of it and really challenge for the top place."
In the 5,000m, Lauren Ryan finished 15th in 15:03.63 as Ethiopian runners swept the top six places, with Tsigie Gebreselama running a new world-leading time of 14:18.76.
Earlier, Kenya's Beatrice Chebet set a world record in the 10,000m, running a stunning 28 minutes, 54.14 seconds to beat the previous record of 29.01.03 set by Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey in 2021.
Men's mile takes centre stage
Gone are the days of the 100 metres taking centre stage as the final event on the program — in 2024, middle distance is king.
The finale of the Eugene event was the men's mile, arguably the deepest field ever assembled for the non-Olympic distance and a precursor to what is expected to be the most anticipated race on the purple track of the Stade de France in August at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In one of the deepest fields of all time, outspoken Olympic 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen lined up against bitter rivals Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman, as well as Commonwealth Games champ Ollie Hoare of Australia.
Kerr and Wightman are the Scots who stunningly beat the Norwegian to the last two world championship titles, which led to a stunning war of words — mainly coming from Ingebrigtsen.
The brash 23-year-old claimed he was sick at the 2023 world titles in Budapest and could have beaten "just the next guy" Kerr "blindfolded" on a normal day.
Kerr, meanwhile, said Ingebrigtsen had "flaws on the track and in the manners realm" and he seemingly exposed them once again, beating his bitter rival in their first meeting since the 2023 World Championships and laying down a huge marker ahead of the Olympics.
The Scotsman ran from the front in the final lap to post a new British record time of 3:45.34, edging Ingebrigtsen into second, just 0.26 seconds behind.
"I wanted to win and I knew it would take something along those lines to go out and win," Kerr said.
"I wasn't focused on the time and trying to find comfort in that first 800. I was able to find that and then press through the field and 600 to go, I thought, you know what, why not, why not take it on and press and scare myself a little bit.
"You need to take the lead at some point in the race to go out and win it. So why not take it out when, you know, it's early in the season and everyone's kind of not trusting their instincts quite yet.
"If anyone's going to do it, I'm going to do it."
The depth of the field was illustrated by Hoare's 3:49.11 only being good enough for ninth place, with Cameron Myers' personal best time of 3:50.15 placing him 11th.
