Hall trumps time, time trumps hall | Column by Lyn Johnson

Looks like Linden Hall has been having a better time lately.

Approaching 35y On his birthday, Hall showed no signs of declining performance. Established as a world champion in the 1500m with a sixth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics and being the first Australian woman to sub-four minutes, she continues her form over the classic distance with personal bests in both the 1500 and mile last year.

Those PBs came at the same time Hall made a successful transition to longer distances. She won the 3,000m at the Stockholm Diamond League meet last year (her only other win came in the 1,500m at the same meet three years ago) before reaching the 5,000m final at the World Championships in Tokyo.

Hall has started 2026 at the same rapid pace. She put Australia in a winning position in the mixed relay at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, posting the fastest time in the second leg to go from fourth at the first change to a commanding lead at the halfway point. She stayed in the U.S. to run in some big indoor meets, running a personal best of 8:27.03 in second place at the 3,000 in Boston on January 24 and then an indoor PB of 4:21.45 in the mile at the Melrose Games six days later.

According to the World Athletics record tables, Hall’s mark of 8:27.03 is the highest performance of her career. Six of its top 10 performances have come since the start of 2025, and all 10 have come since July 2023. Times have improved, both literally and figuratively, for Linden Hall.

“The moon is a cruel mistress“Written by science fiction novelist Robert Heinlein in the 1960s (and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb appropriated the song title a few years later). The clock is quite fickle, if not quite cruel. If time has generally been kind to Linden Hall in recent years, it also showed its cruel side when she raced over 5,000 meters at Box Hill on Thursday (19 February) this week.

On the one hand (if digital watches can be said to have hands), Hall is superior to the clock. On the other hand, the clock dealt it a heavy blow.

Hall took the win in a time of 14:56.04, led by fellow Australian Abby Caldwell in the first 3000 metres, chased by Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka (who finished behind Davies and Hall in Tokyo last year).

This represents the fastest time ever run by an Australian woman in Australia, cutting exactly a second and a half off the 14:57.54 time Davies ran in winning the Melbourne Continental Tour gold meet last year. But it was also 1.04 seconds shy of Australia’s 14:55.00 standard for qualifying for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

We must point out here that these qualifying times are not the same as the times set for the World Championships and Olympic Games. It is determined by World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee. There are no such times for Comm games. There is no open choice. Australia is allotted a quota of places (63, I think, but check the local guides as they say).

However, winning (or first Australian) athletes will be guaranteed selection at the National Championships if they achieve the standard. And in our crowded middle and long distance sector, athletes will have to move from place to place to prevent some big names from missing out on the Games (not to mention the short-lived joy of a Glasgow summer).

Brett Robinson’s victory in the men’s 5000m at Box Hill had a similar element of time – or distance. Over the 4400 metres, Seth O’Donnell dominated the race. On a typical O’Donnell round, he was leading from the start, sometimes by 40 meters or more. But he was slowing noticeably in the last 1,000 meters and Robinson caught him at the back straight on the second-last lap. It was a two-man battle from there, with Robinson prevailing over the final 60 metres, with a time of 13:28.39 to 13:29.40.

A return to the record of all Australian entrants at Linden Hall led your correspondent to compile his own list of the top 10,500 performances given by Australian women in Australia.

After Hall and Davies, there is only one other U15 player: the versatile Izzy Pat Doyle who ran 14:59.18 behind Rose Davies at last year’s Melbourne meet. The next fastest, although this occasion is considered to be perhaps the best performer, is Eloise Wellings with a time of 15:00.69 in fourth place at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Hull sits in 5th-10th place with two of its three National Championship victories (Perth last year and its first in Brisbane in 2023. Sarah Jamieson ran 15:02.90 in 5th in the 2006 Melbourne final, and Georgia Griffiths, Davies (again) and Hull (similarly) are 7-9th. The slowest time in the top 10 is Hull 15:05.87.

Finally, according to World Athletics, there have now been 30 sub-15-minute performances by Australian women across all venues. Along with those previously mentioned, Benita Willis, Lauren Ryan, Maudie Skyering and Jenny Blundell have the number 14 to their name.

All but six of those 30 goals have been achieved since the beginning of 2024. The revolution continues.