Aussies emerge as genuine threats at Paris Olympics as young gun beats Peter Bol’s national record

Australian middle distance star Joseph Deng has announced himself as a real medal threat for the Paris Olympics by breaking superstar Peter Bol’s Australian 800m record.

The training partner of Commonwealth Games gold medalist Bol recorded a stunning 1:43.99 victory at Lyon in France – officially one of the fastest times in the world this year.

The run puts him and Australia right in the frame for a gold medal in the 800 meters at the upcoming World Track and Field titles starting August 19.

Australia now also has a real shot at winning both gold and silver in the two-lap, heart-stopping 800m race with Bol and Deng to push the global field.

Deng’s training partner Peter Bol, the former Aussie 800m record holder and current Commonwealth Games silver medalist is also back in PR form heading to Budapest for the World Championships

Kenyan-born Aussie Deng, who has been in Australia since 2004, reserves his best front-running shows in Europe, as seen here by winning in England

Deng exploded early in France over 800m a few days ago and just kept on destroying a world-class field to become the first Australian man in history to run under 1:44 over 800m.

He is now ranked No. 2 in the world and ahead of his highly regarded superstar training partner Bol, who himself ran a personal best (PB) that day in France, but in the 1500m.

Bol’s 1500m (3:34.52) gives Australia an undeniable and unique chance to take gold and silver at the upcoming World Championships in Athletics in Budapest starting on August 19.

Aussies are gearing up for the Paris Olympics

800m champion Peter Bol is ready for Paris

Deng’s unprecedented 800m performance by an Aussie comes at the same time other Australian track stars have also done great things, such as

• Peter Bol (photo) in top form with a 1500m PB
• Commonwealth Games gold medalist Olli Hoare runs an Australian record in the 1500 metres
• Teen sensation Cam Myers becomes fastest 17-year-old over 1500 meters in the world
• Jessica Hull breaks Australian records in the 1500 and 3000 metres.
• Catriona Bisset is in the top eight in the world in the 800 meters

They are all in sparkling form and racing in the prestigious Diamond League by invitation across Europe.

The duo is in the top five worldwide for 800m.

Deng was born in 1998 in a Kenyan refugee camp after his mother fled the brutal civil war in Sudan.

The family then chose to come to Australia to live, arriving in Queensland in 2004 where Deng soon showed tremendous promise as an athlete.

His manager, James Templeton, was with Peter Bol in the 100 meters as Deng returned home in his record-breaking French race.

“We jumped up and down for him because Joe has been hurt for so long,” Templeton said.

“When he won Pete was beside himself with joy for his mate and when the time came Joe had broken his record, I swear Pete jumped even higher.”

Within an hour of that run, Bol was in the 1500m and ran a stunning time, just missing out on Australia’s qualification for the 1500m World Championships.

The 1500m is not his favorite race, but his performance was amazing. Just like the unknown teenager who followed him for only half a second.

That was Aussie Cameron Myers making the tongues of the world’s leading athletic authorities wag. No one his age can run 1500 meters as fast as the young teenager from Canberra.

And only the legendary Jakob Ingebrigtsen, when he was 17, five years ago, has ever run faster.

Myers ran 3:35.02 in France. It broke every Australian national record up to and including the Under 20 1500m record.

Next Monday [Australian time] in Poland he may join Olli Hoare and Stewy McSweyn on the Australian 1500m team if things fall into place for him.

Myers will race against the behemoth, the world’s tallest and most dominant athlete in Norway’s Ingebrigtsen over 1500 metres.

McSweyn was asked by the Norwegian if he would rush the field (pace) for the first 1000m as he attempts to break the world record over 1500m. Myers will be in the field.

Ingebrigtsen, 22, won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting an Olympic and European record.

At the 2022 World Championships in Athletics, Ingebrigtsen took silver in the 1500 meters and gold in the 5000 meters.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is an Olympic gold medalist, was the fastest teen 1500m runner in history races the Aussie Cam Myers, the 2nd fastest 1500m teen ever on Monday in Poland

Experts around the world rate 17-year-old Aussie Cameron Myers as the best emerging teen talent in the world and he’s racing against Ingebrigtsen July 17

He is a four-time European champion and won the 1500/5000 double in 2018 and 2022.

Myers can’t boast of that record yet – but he’s a prodigious talent with world-class natural speed, but more than that, he’s unafraid.

McSweyn will lead, the great Norwegian will be right behind him and Myers could well go with them given the bravado of the youth.

If he keeps finding, he can hang on, break more age records and work his way up to the Australian team for the World Championships.

Currently, Myers’ 3:35.52 is just three seconds off the team and the best for his age in history.