EUGENE, Ore. (Reuters) – In a World Championships already boasting some notable clean sweeps, the United States remained in the hunt for a first 1-2-3 in the women’s 800 metres after their big three, led by Olympic champion Athing Mu, advanced from Thursday’s heats.
Mu, Raevyn Rogers and Ajee Wilson all looked good, while Kenya’s Mary Moraa and Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson of Britain, the only other athletes to have gone under 1:58 this season, also went through on a warm, humid night.
Mu, 20, has enjoyed a stellar first half of the season, albeit with her best time two seconds down on her 1:55.04 personal best set on the same Hayward Field track almost a year ago.
“The focus coming here was just to be consistent,” she said. “I think the main goal is definitely to get gold because we are here on the U.S. soil and who deserves more gold?
“Tactically if I feel that it is better for me to go to the front, I’ll do that. If it is not, I will just stick back. It will depend on only how I am feeling.”
Rogers, who has a world silver and Olympic bronze to her name, left things a little late before a surge secured her place, while Wilson, third in the last two World Championships, looked assured.
Defending champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda also went through, second behind Mu in a slowly-run heat, while Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji was the fastest of the qualifiers in 1:58.83.
The semi-finals are on Friday with the final on the last night of action on Sunday.
The 800m is an event right at the heart of the debate over athletes of differences of sexual development (DSD), with many of its best performers of the last decade, including multiple world and Olympic champion Caster Semenya, now not allowed to run.
Their increased testosterone levels means they cannot compete in anything from 400m to a mile unless they take hormone suppression medication.
The all-time list is also skewed by the presence of DSD athletes and as well as several from former Eastern Bloc countries with dark doping histories, with the world record dating back to 1983.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Peter Rutherford)
