Two Aussie medals in sparkling 25 minutes: Jessica Hull, Ky Robinson shine at world indoor championships

Australia snared two medals inside a sparkling 25-minute period at the world athletics indoor championships on Saturday night with Jessica Hull and Ky Robinson both landing on the podium.

Hull claimed bronze in the women's 3000 metres in the Chinese city of Nanjing, before Robinson secured a bronze medal of his own in the men's 3000m in the race that followed immediately.

The women's 3000m was won by Ethiopian Freweyni Hailu in 8:37.21, ahead of American Shelby Houlihan in 8:38.26 and Hull just two-hundredths of a second further back.

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Hull's bronze medal will look resplendent alongside the Olympic silver the Albion Park product captured in the 1500m in an historic run in Paris last year, as well as the bronze she picked up in the mixed relay at the 2023 world cross-country championships in Bathurst.

Houlihan, the silver medallist, returned just last month from a four-year ban due to a failed drugs test, which she says may have been caused by a tainted pork burrito.

Linden Hall, who's exchanged the Australian 1500m record with Hull on many occasions, finished ninth in the 3000m in 8:44.99.

While Hull was already a global force leading into the world indoor championships, Robinson was better described as a talented runner with tremendous potential.

And when the 23-year-old gritted past Great Britain's Sam Gilman on the home straight of the 200m track, he netted his maiden global medal in a breakthrough run.

Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the reigning Olympic champion in the 5000m, took gold in 7:46.09 with a smooth surge on the final lap, which left Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi to pick up silver in 7:46.25 and Robinson bronze in 7:47.09.

In what was a relatively slow race, Robinson moved into the lead with three laps to go, slipped back to fourth on the final lap, and snatched a medal with his last-ditch push.

Hull admits her goals are now so high that she can "disappoint" herself easily.

"I just needed to focus on today and not get carried away with trying to be better than Paris [Olympics]," Hull said.

"I was sixth in Belgrade [at the 2022 world indoors] and fourth in Glasgow [2024], and I'm already thinking about Poland next year!"

Robinson gave a raw insight into his mindset after medalling in China.

"Maybe four weeks ago I thought this is where I thought I was at, but the last few weeks of training have been really tough and I lost a bit of confidence," he said.

"I came out here and knew I had to mix it with the big boys, and that's what I did.

"This is something I hoped to achieve at some point in my career and it has come a bit early, so I'm not going to complain, but now the pressure is on to keep the standard up and keep going."

He said both his move to the front and last-gasp push largely came out of "instinct".

"I remember thinking that I don't want to live with any regrets and if I saw a move on this stage, I didn't want to miss that opportunity," Robinson said.

"I wanted to give the gold a crack and some world-class athletes managed to kick me down, which hurts."

Meanwhile, rising Australian sprinter Torrie Lewis bowed out in the semi-finals of the 60m with a time of 7.23 seconds.

The medals claimed by Hull and Robinson on day two of the championships took Australia's medal tally to three, following young sprinter Lachlan Kennedy's silver-winning run in the 60m on the opening day.