SBS VICELAND and will provide all the action from August 19-27, with live and free coverage of all sessions, as well as full replays, extended highlights and more available for Australian audiences.
Hull and Denny were selected as part of Australia’s 67-strong squad for the nine-day event in Hungary, where they will be joined by a host of national record holders and global champions.
Up to 14 Australian record holders, including Hull, will don the green and gold, and the middle-distance star feels the current crop have the potential to do something incomparable to the nation’s previous 18 appearances at the prestigious World Athletics meet.
“Everything’s kind of just gone to a whole new level on the men’s and the women’s side,” Hull told SBS Sport.
“We’re starting to catch up to the rest of the world and our national records are starting to look like the European records do, and the American records are there as well that we’re kind of closing in on.
“We’re not just good domestically anymore, we’re going to go over internationally and we’re going to start making finals and making some noise in those finals.
“I just think that the attitude has changed a little bit. We don’t just want to be standing on the start line, we want to have an impact on the way these races are going.”
For Denny, athletics in Australia is a far cry from the landscape it found itself in a decade ago - when the incredible success of Steve Hooker, Dani Stevens, and Sally Pearson overshadowed the perceived lack of consistency emanating from the rest of their peers.
Australia’s presence on the podium was more “sporadic” back then, according to the 27-year-old, and well before track and field athletes implemented a mindset that truly captures the country's competitive spirit.
“It’s like everyone’s just kind of taken away that barrier of ‘we’re from Australia’,” Denny told SBS Sport.
“Like we’re still behind the eight ball or we still haven’t developed and we’re not as good as some of these major nations like America or Germany, or so on and so forth that have all this depth and whatever.
“But now, well, I beg to differ, and I think it’s just taking away that stereotype of, because we’re so far away, we can’t be as competitive on the world stage.”
Eleanor Patterson (high jump) and Kelsey-Lee Barber (javelin) are two Australians set to defend their world titles in Budapest, while a further four – Nina Kennedy (pole vault), Jemima Montag (race walk), Kurtis Marschall (pole vault) and Denny (discus) – will compete as reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallists.
For Hull and Denny, however, perhaps what truly reflects Australia’s advancements in the sport is its depth, where every athlete appears to be entering the World Championships in peak condition and with the same goal of winning in mind.
Such a spread of talent is helping keep veterans like Hull and Stewart McSweyn (1500m, 5000m) on their toes in camp, and it’s adding further fuel to the fire within Denny as he aims to increase his medal tally.
“I think that depth is creating better junior and youth athletes; it just sets the standards,” he said.
“My mentality this year is: ‘everyone is throwing 70 metres, so it’s either be forgotten or catch up’. I think that goes the same for Australia; everyone is like, ‘I don’t want to just participate, I don’t just want to get run out of the heat or just make a final, I actually want to do something in the medals’.
“I think that’s just creating so much depth for us.”
