Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke has announced her engagement to fellow athlete Alex Beck after keeping their relationship a secret.
Jenneke and Beck shared the delightful news in a joint post on Instagram captioned “8.5 years in the making” along with love heart and engagement ring emojis.
The happy couple shared a few photos looking absolutely thrilled as Jenneke showed off her ring and embraced her fiancé.
The news has come as a surprise to her fans, given neither Jenneke nor Beck had posted photos of each other on their Instagram until their engagement announcement.
Fellow athletes were quick to comment their messages of congratulations on the engagement.
Australia’s high jump world champion Nicola Olyslagers commented: “Yessss congratulations to you both!!
Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman said: “Yayyyyyyyy congratulations.”
Beck, 33, competed at the Tokyo Olympics and ran a personal best of 45.54 in his heat, just missing out on the semifinals.
He has also raced at the World Athletics Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Oceania Athletics Championships.
Jenneke is a two-time Olympian, who rose to fame when her pre-race dancing ritual went viral early in her career.
The 32-year-old is the second-fastest 100m hurdler in Australian history behind Sally Pearson — she finished sixth in her heat in Rio and fell over a hurdle in her heat in Paris.
Jenneke later revealed she fully ruptured a hamstring tendon in her heat at the Paris Olympics, causing her to hit a hurdle and take a big fall.
But she is back running after missing out on qualifying for this year’s world championships by just 0.08 of a second, and was in action on the weekend, setting a new personal best in the long jump.
“Side quest achieved!” Jenneke wrote on social media. Set myself a preseason goal of breaking the 6m barrier and last night I did it in style with a big pb of 6.32m!!!
“Huge thanks to my super coach Bron for humoring me and showing me the ropes, I promise I’ll remember I’m a hurdler now haha.”
