Exciting races expected in 2023 as Moraa takes on strong opposition

Rivalry between Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson in the women's 800m at the world stage was the centre of attraction in 2022 but Kenya's Mary Moraa also entered the equation.

After winning Olympic gold as a teenager, Mu became the youngest woman to ever claim both world and Olympic titles in an individual athletics event when she again held off Hodgkinson to secure victory on home soil at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. 

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Clocking a world-leading 1:56.30, Mu maintained her unbeaten year and an outdoor win streak that dates back to September 2019. 

Her fellow 20-year-old Hodgkinson gained another global runner-up spot, finishing second in 1:56.38, while 22-year-old Moraa dipped under 1:57 for the first time, running a PB of 1:56.71 for bronze. 

Another 20-year-old, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji was just outside 1:57, running a PB of 1:57.02 for fourth.

Those four athletes, along with the consistent Natoya Goule who ran 1:56.98 to win in Monaco and finished fifth in the world final, filled the first five places on the season top list, in a year of record depth for the event and are expected to offer exciting match-ups in the 2023 season. 

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Moraa will clash with Olympic Games Silver medalist Hodgkinson and the 2018 World U20 Championships winner Welteji over the 800m distance at the third Gold level meeting in the 2023 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series on February 8 as she makes her indoor debut. 

This will be the trio's first indoor three-way battle following their exciting head-to-heads during this year’s outdoor season.

More exciting classes are expected outdoors when the Diamond League series begins as well as in Budapest at the World Championships. 

A total of 168 sub-two-minute performances were achieved outdoors by 54 athletes, while the top 100 all dipped under 2:01.40.

One of the surprises of the season was Moraa’s performance at the Commonwealth Games, but not so much her win as the way she ran to claim it. Surging her way to victory, she overtook Laura Muir, Goule and Hodgkinson in the closing stages to triumph in 1:57.07.

Hodgkinson was determined to rebound and did so at the European Championships, winning in Munich in 1:59.04. She had to settle for fifth at the Wanda Diamond League Final, however, as Moraa claimed another big win, clocking 1:57.63 ahead of Goule (1:57.85).

Earlier in the year, Hodgkinson had marked herself as a strong favourite for the world indoor title, running a British record of 1:57.20 to move to sixth on the world indoor all-time list at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Birmingham. 

The quickest indoor 800m since the world record of 1:55.82 set by Jolanda Ceplak in 2002, it was also coincidentally the fastest indoor 800m of Hodgkinson’s lifetime, as the Briton was born on the exact same date as that world record run.

But injury meant she was unable to build on that performance at the following month’s World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, and there the gold was claimed by USA’s Ajee Wilson, twice a world indoor silver medallist who finally claimed the title, running 1:59.09 to beat Freweyni Hailu and Halimah Nakaayi.

USA’s Roisin Willis was among the outdoor season’s sub-two minute performers as she won the world U20 title in a championship record of 1:59.13.

Additional reporting by World Athletics