World championship disaster as ‘shattered’ Peter Bol crashes out

The Australian champion was left shattered after he missed progressing through to the world championships finals by .02sec after finishing fourth in his heat.

Only the first three automatically progress to the semi-finals and then it’s down to the next three fastest times out of the seven heats.

Bol was near the front for most of his heat but started to fade down the home straight and was passed in the last few strides to the line, finishing fourth in 1:45.15sec which put him in the danger zone.

Coming into the final heat he was in the third fastest slot but was spat out with the final heat one of the fastest for the night.

“It was probably the most stressful championship I’ve had just waiting out there,” Bol said. “At the same time it’s a championship, you never know what you’re gonna get, and you can’t practice it enough because it only happens once a year.

“Obviously it was a disappointing race and I made a little bit of an error. As I’ve said, it’s a patient game, and whoever is the most patient always comes top three and I just didn’t have enough patience out there.”

Bol, who lowered his own Australian record to 1min42.55sec in Monaco in July, said he had a sinking feeling over the final 50m that he’d made a miscalculation.

“In the 800 you have one move and I made three. Making too many moves, you just don’t win. You only have one move, and you’re got to time it to absolute perfection. And I just misjudged it.,” he said.

“In the 800 there’s always going to be someone. And I thought I could keep him off up to the line, I knew someone was coming behind me, you can just sense it.

“He (Jamaica’s Tyrice Taylor) stayed patient. He got me at the end, and probably timed it to perfection to get me and if he’d made another move he would have missed it.”

The 31-year-old, who had his career moment in the Tokyo National Stadium four years ago when he finished fourth in the Olympic final, says he will learn from this experience but was still proud of his best season for several years.

“I’ve been competing for so long now, I’ve had lots of experiences, I’ve been here before not making a semi final and I’ve been on the other end making the final,” Bol said.

“I’ve won Commonwealth medals, been in world and Olympic finals, so I’ve probably had a bit of all of it at this part of my career but of course I’m disappointed.”

Queensland’s Peyton Craig also finished fourth in his heat (1:45.44sec) to miss out while Luke Boyes (1:45.63sec) also failed to fire.