Peter Bol

Nagmeldin 'Peter' Bol was born in Sudan, with his family fleeing the civil war when he was four years old.

The Bol family emigrated to Egypt as refugees, and settled there for six years before immigrating to Australia.

When Peter was growing up, his dad would tell the kids stories about Sudan's conflict and how he wanted to take his children out of there and work towards a better life.

Initially arriving in Toowoomba, the family then moved to Perth.

Peter commenced his athletics journey at 16 after an athletics school carnival. One of his teachers approached Bol and convinced him to join an athletics club, promising to help him find a mentor, a club and a coach. He thought it was a pretty good deal, especially because it meant he'd be fitter for basketball, so he agreed.

Within a couple of years, in 2013, he won the national junior 800m title in a PB 1:48.90. He recorded his first sub-1:48 in 2014 and sub-1:47 in 2015.

In 2015 he moved to Melbourne to be coached by Justin Rinaldi and train alongside National Record Holder, Alex Rowe.

After placing fifth in the 2016 National Championships, he chased the Olympic qualifier in Europe (standard 1:45.80). He achieved his first qualifier in Wiesbaden, Germany (1:45.78) in June.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics, Peter placed sixth in his heat in 1:49.36.

In 2017, he travelled to Europe chasing a world championships qualifier, which he achieved with a PB of 1:45.21. At the 2017 IAAF World Championships, he placed seventh in his 800m heat. An injury (stress fracture) in early 2018 resulted in him missing Commonwealth Games selection.

Peter and his training partner, Joseph Deng, then went hunting the nearly 50-year-old Australian 800m record.

Peter started very well clocking a large PB and becoming the fourth-fastest Australia ever with a time of 1:44.56 in Stockholm, but Deng would beat him to the national 800m record in July.

In 2019, Peter won the national title and was Australia’s sole representative at the world championships in Doha.

In the summer of 2021 Peter Bol won Track Classics in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, before taking the national title in April. But the qualifying standard for Tokyo had remained elusive as his summer best of 1:45.23 was just 0.03 seconds outside the standard. But in June 2021 on the Gold Coast, a more relaxed Bol, nailed the qualifier clocking 1:44.88. The next week he ran even faster 1:44.62, his second fastest time and the fastest ever by an Australian in Oz.

Ranked 19th going into Tokyo, he was on from the start, placing second in his 800m heat in a national record time of 1:44.13. The next day, he stamped himself as a medal prospect winning his semi-final in another national record of 1:44.11. Peter became the third different athlete coached by Justin Rinaldi to equal or set the national 800m record in the last six years, following Alex Rowe in 2015 and Jo Deng in 2018.

In the 800m final, a slower more tactical race, Peter was gutsy and gave himself every chance to finish on the podium, eventually placing a magnificent fourth.

It was the highest place by an Australian male in an individual track event since Darren Clark's fourth in the 400m in 1988 – 33 years ago and before Peter was born. A result only bettered by Olympic champions and pioneers Edwin Flack (1896) and Ralph Doubell (1968).

"I gave myself every chance. I think the only thing I regret is tightening up a little in that last 100," Peter said.

"I'm grateful, I'm thankful to everyone in Australia we wanted to inspire the whole nation."

Australia were certainly following Peter Bol’s progress with 2.46 million Aussies watching him run the final on the live broadcast around Australia.

In 2022 Peter won his third consecutive National 800m title. On a European tour ahead of the world championships, competing at the Paris Diamond League in June, he broke his own Australian 800m record, clocking 1:44.00 – the third time he had lowered the record in 12 months.

At his third World Championships in Eugene in 2022 he placed 7th in the 800m final, becoming the first ever Australian male to qualify for a world championship 800m final. Two weeks later at the Commonwealth Games, he won his first international medal – silver, in a slow tactical race clocking 1:47.66.

In 2023 he raced regularly in Europe, clocking a best time of 1:44.29, and in August competed in the 800m heats at his fourth consecutive world championships in Budapest.