Peter Bol
Peter Bol in 2017
Personal information
Birth nameNagmeldin "Peter" Bol
NationalityAustralian
Born (1994-02-22) 22 February 1994
Khartoum, Sudan
Height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportTrack and field
Event800 metres
University teamCurtin University[1]
ClubSt Kevins Athletics Club
Coached byJustin Rinaldi
Achievements and titles
Personal best1:44.00 (Paris 2022)
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Australia
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place2022 Birmingham800 m

Nagmeldin "Peter" Bol (born 22 February 1994)[2] is an Australian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics, placed fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Early life and education

Born in Khartoum, Sudan, Bol's mother is Sudanese, and his father is from the region that is now South Sudan.[3][4] His family fled the Sudanese civil war when he was four.[5] In 2016, it was falsely reported that his family lived in an Egyptian refugee camp before emigrating to Australia.[6] Bol has stated that "despite what some people have said and written, we never lived in a refugee camp."[7][8]

At the age of eight, Bol arrived in Toowoomba, Queensland.[5] He grew up in Perth and attended St Norbert College[3] on a basketball scholarship.[4] In 2017, Bol completed a degree in construction management at Curtin University.[3][4] He briefly worked as an engineer prior to signing an Adidas contract in 2018, and has since also completed a business course at the University of Melbourne.[9]

Athletics career

Bol was a promising basketballer in Perth, Western Australia. When he was 16, a teacher at St Norbert College suggested he try 800 metres running after a promising cross-country race.[3]

In 2013, Bol won the junior men's 800 m at the Australian Athletics Championships in a personal best time of 1:48.90.[3] In December 2015, he moved from Perth to Melbourne to train with coach Justin Rinaldi, who also coached joint national record holder Alexander Rowe.[3]

In 2016, he ran two Olympic qualifying times (1:45.78 and 1:45.41) and was selected on the Australian team for the 2016 Rio Olympics.[10] At the Games, Bol finished sixth in his heat with a time of 1:49.36.[2]

At the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London, he finished seventh in his heat in a time of 1:49.65.[11]

In June 2018 at an IAAF meet in Stockholm, Sweden, he set a personal best of 1:44.56 in the 800 m defeating training partner Joseph Deng.[10]

He was eliminated in the heats of his signature event at the 2019 World Championships held in Doha, Qatar, running 1:46.92.[2]

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Bol came first in his semi-final with a personal best time of 1:44:11. He then came fourth in the tactical final, missing out on a bronze medal by 0.53 s. The winning Emmanuel Korir's time of 1:45.06 was slower than the time that Bol had accomplished in his heat.[12]

He set a new Oceania and Australian record of 1:44.00 in June 2022 at the Paris Diamond League. This was the third time he has lowered the national record in the 800 m.[13] That year Bol finished seventh in his specialty at the World Championships held in Eugene, Oregon with a time of 1:45.51 before claiming the silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 1:47.66.[2]

Bol is also the Claisebrook Cove parkrun course record holder, with a time of 14:40 over 5km.[14]

Doping suspension and exoneration

In January 2023, it was announced that Bol had been provisionally suspended by Athletics Australia after failed out-of-competition doping test, with the test showing signs of synthetic EPO.[15][16] His suspension was lifted the following month because his B sample returned an atypical finding (ATF) for EPO, though Sport Integrity Australia continued its investigation.[17] In August 2023, Bol was officially cleared by Sports Integrity Australia.[18]

Achievements

International competitions

Representing  Australia
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventTime
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 41st (h) 800 m 1:49.36
2017 World Championships London, United Kingdom 38th (h) 800 m 1:49.65
2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar 31st (h) 800 m 1:46.92
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 4th 800 m 1:45.92
2022 World Championships Eugene, OR, United States 7th 800 m 1:45.51
Commonwealth Games Birmingham, United Kingdom 2nd 800 m 1:47.66
2023 World Championships Budapest, Hungary 28th (h) 800 m 1:46.75

Circuit wins, and National titles

Personal bests

References

  1. ↑ Bol, Peter (1 March 2015). "The Power of Consistency". Runners Tribe Journal. Runners Tribe. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Peter BOL – Athlete Profile". World Athletics. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Butler, Steve (5 December 2015). "Bol on the fast track to Olympic dream". West Australian.
  4. 1 2 3 Pender, Kieran (3 August 2021). "Peter Bol: 'Get to know the person, instead of the assumptions'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 Gleeson, Michael (12 August 2016). "Rio Olympics 2016: Peter Bol, the man who ran from Sudan to Australia". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  6. ↑ "Bol's 'refugee camp'". Media Watch. 9 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Tokyo 2020: Perth's Peter Bol clarifies false reports ahead of men's 800m final". The Sunday Times. 4 August 2021.
  8. ↑ Mao, Frances (5 August 2021). "Peter Bol: The Sudanese-Australian runner who lifted a nation". BBC News.
  9. ↑ Marshall, Konrad (11 February 2022). "The fast and the curious: how elite runner Peter Bol keeps his life on track". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Peter Bol". Athletics Australia Profiles. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  11. ↑ "Nagmeldin 'Peter' Bol". Australian Athletics Historical Results. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "Peter Bol". www.athletics.com.au. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Bol breaks Oceania record as Australian men master the mile". The Guardian. 19 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  14. ↑ https://www.parkrun.com.au/claisebrookcove/results/fastest500/
  15. ↑ "Australian 800m record-holder Peter Bol tests positive". AW. 20 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  16. ↑ Hytner, Mike (20 January 2023). "Australian Olympic athlete Peter Bol fails out-of-competition doping test". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  17. ↑ Hytner, Mike (14 February 2023). "Olympian Peter Bol's provisional doping suspension lifted after B sample test returned". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  18. ↑ "SPORT INTEGRITY AUSTRALIA UPDATE ON THE PETER BOL MATTER". Sports Integrity Austrtalia. 1 August 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.

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