Peter Bol (runner)

Nagmeldin "Peter" Bol (born 22 February 1994) is an Australian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics, placed fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Early life and education
Born in Khartoum, Sudan, Bol's mother Hanan Kuku is Sudanese of Nubian ethnicity, and his father Abdalla Bol is an ethnic Dinka from the region that is now South Sudan. His family fled the Second Sudanese Civil War when he was four. In 2016, it was falsely reported that his family lived in an Egyptian refugee camp before emigrating to Australia. Bol has stated that "despite what some people have said and written, we never lived in a refugee camp."

At the age of eight, Bol arrived in Toowoomba, Queensland. He grew up in Perth and attended St Norbert College on a basketball scholarship. In 2017, Bol completed a degree in construction management at Curtin University. He briefly worked as an engineer prior to signing an Adidas contract in 2018, and has since also completed a business course at the University of Melbourne.

Athletics career
Bol was a promising basketballer in Perth, Western Australia. When he was 16, a teacher at St Norbert College suggested he try 800 metres running after a promising cross-country race.

In 2013, Bol won the junior men's 800 m at the Australian Athletics Championships in a personal best time of 1:48.90. In December 2015, he moved from Perth to Melbourne to train with coach Justin Rinaldi, who also coached joint national record holder Alexander Rowe.

In 2016, he ran two Olympic qualifying times (1:45.78 and 1:45.41) and was selected on the Australian team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. At the Games, Bol finished sixth in his heat with a time of 1:49.36.

At the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London, he finished seventh in his heat in a time of 1:49.65.

In June 2018 at an IAAF meet in Stockholm, Sweden, he set a personal best of 1:44.56 in the 800 m defeating training partner Joseph Deng.

He was eliminated in the heats of his signature event at the 2019 World Championships held in Doha, Qatar, running 1:46.92.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Bol came first in his semi-final with a personal best time of 1:44:11. He then came fourth in the final, missing out on a bronze medal by 0.53 s.

He set a new Oceania and Australian record of 1:44.00 in June 2022 at the Paris Diamond League. This was the third time he has lowered the national record in the 800 m. That year Bol finished seventh in his specialty at the World Championships held in Eugene, Oregon with a time of 1:45.51 before claiming the silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 1:47.66.

Bol is also the Claisebrook Cove parkrun course record holder, with a time of 14:40 over 5km.

Doping suspension and exoneration
In January 2023, it was announced that Bol had been provisionally suspended by Athletics Australia after failed out-of-competition doping test, with the test showing signs of synthetic EPO. His suspension was lifted the following month because his B sample returned an atypical finding (ATF) for EPO, though Sport Integrity Australia continued its investigation. In August 2023, Bol was officially cleared by Sports Integrity Australia.

Circuit wins, and National titles

 * Diamond League
 * 2018: Stockholm BAUHAUS-galan (800m)
 * Australian Athletics Championships
 * 800 metres: 2019, 2021, 2022

Personal bests

 * 600 metres – 1:16.26 (Glendale 2019)
 * 800 metres – 1:44.00 (Paris 2022)
 * 800 metres indoor – 1:47.70 (Ostrava 2019)
 * 1500 metres – 3:34.52 (Décines 2023)