Peter Bol (athletics) made his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham where he won silver in the men’s 800m, his first international medal and Australia’s best result in the event since Peter Bourke won gold in Brisbane in 1982. A year earlier at his second Olympics in Tokyo, Bol became the first Australian to qualify for the men’s Olympic 800m final since Ralph Doubell won gold in Mexico City in 1968. In a performance which captivated the nation, he set the pace up front and took the pack most of the way, ultimately finishing 4th in an Australian record 1:44.11.

Born Nagmeldin Bol (the first part of his name is pronounced “Najma” and means ‘star’ in Arabic while the second part ‘din’ means religion), his family fled war-torn Sudan to Egypt when he was six, before migrating to Australia on humanitarian visas four years later. He settled in Toowoomba with his family where he completed his primary education, then the family moved to Perth where Peter was awarded a basketball scholarship at St Norbert College, but his running talent was noticed by a sports teacher. He moved to Melbourne in 2015 to train full time with Justin Rinaldi and made his international debut for Australia at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Bol has also represented Australia at four world championships (2017, 2019, 2022, 2023), becoming the first Australian to qualify for an 800m final in 2022 where he finished 7th.