Peter Bol was in a league of his own at the 23rd Bauhaus Junior Gala in Mannheim, running a London world championships qualifier of 1:45.21 over 800m which moves him to equal seventh Australian all-time.
Bol has come within the qualifier a number of times in recent weeks, despite poor conditions he remained confident due to consistent training whilst having training partner Joseph Deng set the pace in Mannheim.
“It's a massive relief, but at the same time I can honestly say I haven't worried about it at all this trip,” said Bol.
“I had no doubt in Joe’s ability to pace the race, we've been training well together here in Cologne and I know what shape his in so my job was just to worry about sitting on the train.”
“The conditions weren't ideal and I think Joe did a great job as well as the second pacer as I only really had to run the last 300m on my own.”
It was a busy schedule before Mannheim which may suggest a faster time is within reach for the 23-year-old.
“Leading up to running a qualifier we didn't really taper as much as we wanted to. We raced in France on Wednesday after a late call the day before and having already trained on Monday and Tuesday,” Bol added.
“The plan is to freshen up for the next race and have a little bit of fun running a 400 m and possibly even a 1500m.”
With time running out before coach Justin Rinaldi returned home, Bol was determined to run the required time in his presence.
“Having Justin here in Cologne for three weeks has been awesome and Saturday was my last race before he heads back to Melbourne tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure to qualify before he left but we both know that there's still more to come.”
Bol is eager to not only represent Australia at the upcoming World Championships, but put the country back on the 800m world-stage.
“Assuming selection, I'm looking forward to wearing the green and gold again, only this time I've got a little bit more experience from Rio last year and this European trip,” Bol said.
“I want to put Australia on the world stage in terms of the 800m, it's been way too long.”
Bol isn’t alone in trying to put Australia on the world stage over 800m, with fellow VIS scholarship holders and middle-distance stars Luke Mathews and Jeff Riseley pursuing parallel ideals.
