Australia has a new athletics star with an inspiring story.

20-year-old Joseph Deng broke the Australian 800-metre record at the Monaco Diamond League event last weekend.

Proud to say that I’m the new Australian 800m record holder after breaking a 49 year old record 💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/2RTFbmwgI4

— Joseph Deng (@j0sephdeng) July 21, 2018

It’s a record that stood for almost 50 years, set by Ralph Doubell at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

His gold medal and world record effort has remained in the history books as one of the greatest 800m runs of all time.

James Willis spoke with Ralph Doubell after his record was broken, to reflect on that momentous day 50 years ago and do discuss his successor Joseph Deng.

Click PLAY below to listen to the package

As Ralph says, Joseph has boundless potential.

The 20-year-old was born in a Kenyan refugee camp after his family fled from Sudan.

He moved to Australia as a six-year-old, attending Ipswich Grammar School.

Alan Jones has been following the young athlete for some time now and speaks with him following the record-breaking run.

Joe says his time of 1:44.21 sec was surreal.

“I feel great. It’s been one of my goals, breaking the Australian record.

“It’s an honour to finally achieve it.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview