The fall of the Australian women’s 1500m record has loomed ever since Linden Hall sliced seconds off her personal best at the 2016 IAAF Diamond League Prefontaine Classic to be within an inch of Sarah Jamieson’s record.
Fast-forward two years, Hall crossed the line in sixth position in a time of 4:00.86, thus breaking a 12-year-old record to rewrite the Australian history books by the smallest of margins, 0.07 of a second.
Throughout the race, a confident Hall positioned herself in the lead pack, giving herself every opportunity for a record breaking run.
“At the bell, I was feeling like I had more gears to move through over the final lap and was sitting in the front part of the race which is always a good sign. I was trying to not too think too much about the end result but stay in the race and let the result sort itself out,” Hall explained.
As she crossed the finish line, a nervous Hall awaited results to populate on the scoreboard, when they did it was pure elation.
“It actually took a while for my time to come up, the first 5 came up and then there was a long pause. That was when I realised it was a possibility, I was trying to calculate how close I was to the 5th place time. It was a strange feeling because I was so shocked and excited, but no one else knew why I was so excited,” said an ecstatic Hall.
In what was a fitting takeover, Hall eclipsed the record from her former coach and Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, Sarah Jamieson.
“It’s pretty special to take the record from Jamo, someone who I've looked up to for so many years and been lucky enough to have in my corner for the past few years,” she said.
The 26-year-old has recently completed a Master of Dietetics at Monash University, taking an immense load off her shoulders and allowing greater focus on being an elite athlete.
“The last 12 months has been a big change without uni work and placement. It's been amazing to have enough time to do all the right things, be less stressed and get enough sleep. But, sometimes I've got way too much free time on my hands, could use a few more projects - just without the same level of time commitment as full time uni!”
Hall now returns to her current base in Flagstaff, Arizona for a stint of altitude training before departing for the European summer season.
