Zoe Buckman qualifies for women's 1500m at world championships Australia's Zoe Buckman, right, on the way to winning her semi-final in the women's 1500m at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow. Zoe Buckman is going where no Australian woman has gone before. She is going somewhere she didn't think she would go. Buckman has become the first Australian woman ever to make the final of the 1500m at a world championship. Even she didn't expect this to happen. Not content with that, she broke her personal best time, won her semi and was the fastest woman to qualify for the final. She certainly didn't expect that. Now a medal beckons. Honestly coming in I didn't think I was capable of medals my aim was just to get to the final and with what I have done the last few races I can see that I am capable of that. I have a fighting chance ... I have the kick down," she said. I will let everyone else worry about (expectations). My expectations are the only thing that matter and they are quite high and I am hungry to medal. Buckman ran an assured race. She pushed hard to claim a front run in the jockeying and was determined to hold it. She sat one off the lead and off the rail to give herself room. She knew world indoor champion Genzebe Dibaba was on her shoulder and wanted to keep her wide. She runs an aggressive style that belies her quiet nature. She speaks gently and uses her words sparingly but smiles and admits racing brings out another side of her. White line fever on a blue track. She looked likely to be blocked but a gap opened and she had the kick to be able to power through it. Kenyan Faith Kipyegon appeared to have the race but Buckman continued to hunt her. She only took the lead for the first time with her last step, but that is the only step that matters. It was only a semi and not the final so placings are slightly less relevant but there was a confidence in her to push to the last gasp that encouraged even her. Once I got through I told myself to just keep running hard right to the line not just hang out for fourth place. You can't just expect it is going to come easy," she said. Buckman made the semi in London and said that gave her the impetus to believe she belonged and so ratcheted up her training program. She talks of more wile and smarts on the track but there is a more self assured look to the way she runs now than 12 months ago, previously she was a girl skipping along with the ladies, now she is a woman demanding her own piece of track and refusing to be cowed by others. I think I am quite different on the track than I am off the track. I am just a bit more aggressive and assertive and out there and in my own personal time I do my own thing and people would say I am a bit quiet. I am proving to myself that I can cope with he nerves and I am capable of staying in control in these races ... I am quite surprised with the win, a personal best. From Canberra, she left Australia for College in Oregon in the US to study and race and returned to be trained by Nic Bideau in Melbourne. "I have just been gradually working my way up a lot of people take these big leaps all of a sudden in athletics but I am someone who has been slowly coming over the top," she said. Having arrived with thoughts of making a final Buckman considers that having run a Personal best already whatever happens now is a win-win. I am going to be happy during the race and whenever you are happy you always perform .... I am definitely going after that Australian record," she said. For Buckman's joy there was also disappointment for Australian discus thrower Julian Wruck, who missed the final eight in the discus. I wanted to come top eight, I wasn't too far off. I can't say I am not disappointed but I think it is all just lessons learnt for next year," the 22-year-old said. Wruck's first throw was a mental loosener at 60.91, his next 61.80 and he finished with his biggest throw, which was still a relatively modest 62.4m, to finish 11th. Wruck, like Buckman, emerged through the US college system, and like Buckman is contenting himself with the slow burn. Discus is an old man's sport, I think I am the second youngest to make the final. I have been improving at about two metres a year, hopefully I can hold that up for a few years," he said. Australian Lauren Boden was eliminated in her semi final of the 400m hurdles, running a time of 55.75. Meanwhile, Russia thrilled to the phenomenal Yelena Isinbayeva. The dual Olympic gold medallist won her third world championship gold. She then attempted to beat her own world record mark of 5.06m, riding the euphoria of her gold medal jump to three attempts at 5.07m. The crowd tried as it might to lift her but she could not improve her mark. She could scarcely improve her night. American La Shawn Merritt, a man once banned for drug use after offering the unusual explanation that he had used a penis enlargement cream, comfortably won the 400m in 43.74 seconds.