Mu, 19, prodigy from New Jersey, who only turned professional in June after a successful college career, led from start to finish to win in a new US national record of 1min 55.21sec.
America’s Athing Mu after winning the 800m final yesterday. Pic/AFP
Teenager Athing Mu became the first American woman to win the Olympic 800m crown in more than half a century on Tuesday, producing a superb display of front-running to win the gold.
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Mu, 19, prodigy from New Jersey, who only turned professional in June after a successful college career, led from start to finish to win in a new US national record of 1min 55.21sec.
Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, 19, took silver in 1:55.88 while Raevyn Rogers of the United States took bronze in 1:56.81. Mu, whose parents moved to the United States after fleeing civil war in Sudan, is the first American woman to win the Olympic 800m title since Madeline Manning at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
‘Goal accomplished’
“It’s awesome,” said Mu. “I feel like I’ve just accomplished one of my goals. I just wanted to be a medallist.” Mu said that her ambition grew bigger than that as it got closer to the final. “I wasn’t really putting gold on that, but as it got closer to the final today, I was like, ‘Yeah, we want gold’,” she said.
Drawn in lane three, Mu glided into the lead before the 200m mark and never looked back, clocking a brisk 57.82 first lap. She then cranked up the pace in the closing 200 metres, pulling away from the field to cross the line with a comfortable margin.
It was a performance reminiscent of David Rudisha’s world record-breaking performance at the 2012 Olympics, when the Kenyan led from start to finish to claim a brilliant gold. “That race was literally insane,” Mu said.
Comparison with Rudisha
“I think I’ve compared myself to him once, just thinking about how he ran. If the world record had gone down [tonight] I would have been like ‘Yeah, definitely Rudisha.’”
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