Jessica Hull stuns in 1500m final as water polo Stingers fall agonisingly short of Olympics gold

Australia won two more silver medals at the Paris Olympics on Saturday night, with Jessica Hull producing a stunning run in the 1500m final and the Stingers going down to Spain in the water polo final. Hull became the first Australian woman to win a medal in a 1500m final at the Olympics, and the first since the great Herb Elliott in 1960.

The 27-year-old Aussie finished a sensational second behind legendary Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, after overtaking flagging Ethiopian Diribe Welteji in the final straight to pocket the silver in three minutes 52.56 seconds. Her time would have broken the previous Olympic record and was her second-fastest ever.

Kipyegon won a third successive Olympic 1500m title in 3:51.29 on Saturday, while Britain's Georgia Bell flew home to take the bronze. Hull's incredible run marks the the first time an Australian woman has won an Olympic medal on the track at a distance further than 800m.

It was Australia's seventh medal in track and field medal at the Paris Games - the second-best tally in Olympics history behind only the 12 medals won on home soil in Melbourne in 1956. Edwin Flack (1896) and Herb Elliott (1960) are the only Australians to win 1500m titles at the Olympics.

“That was amazing. That was so amazing. Jess Hull, you have just entered history books,” Tamsyn Manou said on Channel 9. “Jessica Hull, you are now a legend of our sport. That was a brilliant race, she covered every move, that was just brilliant.”

Gerard Whateley described it as “the race of her life” for Hull. “It’s a race we’ll never forget, (Kipyegon has) won three and Jess Hull’s role in it is going to be silver. It’s a rare treasure, it’s a feat as good as gold,” he said. “Faith Kipyegon joins Usain Bolt on a pantheon of the greats and we’ll talk about Jess Hull with Edwin Flack, John Landy and Herb Elliott - and they’ve done it in an Olympic record.”

Hull told Channel 9 afterwards: “It’s really cool to hear now, it’s a little daunting in the process. A little bit of expectation to be that next one but it’s a rare crowd, it takes one now and the floodgates will probably open. There’s a lot of talent coming through that this is going to become normal.

"I looked up with 200 to go and they actually had our race on the back-straight scoreboard, which the distance runners had been wishing would happen all championships. And I saw there were four of us there and I was like, 'I'm not going home empty-handed'. Then coming into the straight I had another glimpse and I was like, 'Ah, there's still four of us', and I was like, 'Just run through the line'. I saw Faith pulling away from us but knew the closer I was to her the closer I was to a medal. It's the best feeling."

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Water polo Stingers fall short in gold medal match

It wasn't such a great feeling for the Stingers, but they were still rapt with their efforts to win silver. The women's water polo team succumbed in the final 11-9 to Spain as their frustrating 24-year wait for the biggest title in the sport continues.

Bec Rippon's team finally met their match in a brilliant Spanish side, inspired by Bea Ortiz's four goals and a hat-trick from Maica Garcia Godoy. Alice Williams scored five goals for the Aussies, but it wasn't enough to secure them a first gold medal since the 2000 Games in Sydney.

"I'm so proud of this team but this was hard," said coach Rippon, who had been a player in the bronze-medal winning team in Beijing in 2008 and is now the first female coach of an Olympic medal-winning women's team. "We had a lot of good looks at goal but didn't finish well, didn't take the most of our opportunities. Their goalie (Martina Terre) had a great game but we're probably a little bit too predictable in where we were going to shoot and didn't finish as well as we'd like."

with AAP