Australian runner smashes personal best to secure spot at Rio Games Athletics: Melbourne's Linden Hall (pictured) has run a big personal best and an Olympic qualifier to make a certainty of her place on the team for Rio. And in an impressive night at the invitational meet at Stanford University in California on Sunday night, fellow Melbourne runner Sam McEntee, who won the national title in Sydney in   March, also hit the qualifying mark in the 5000m. As the national champion he will be nominated for the team. In an astonishing performance, Hall cut six seconds from her 1500 metres time when she won in 4 minutes 4.47 seconds. It was the first time she had run under 4:10. Hall's time was the fourth fastest by an Australian ever and the quickest by any woman in the world this year. Only Zoe Buckman, who has also qualified for the Olympics, has run a quicker time than Hall's in the past eight years. 
Hall, a Monash University masters student who has just returned from four years studying on a sports scholarship at Florida State University, is the third Australian woman to qualify for the Olympics after Melissa Duncan and Buckman.
Duncan has been named on the team but Hall, who came second at the national titles, appears certain to join her.
Michael Gleeson