Mary Moraa's 2023 Odyssey

The 2023 season involved three young runners of the highest calibre in Kenya’s 23-year-old Mary Moraa and 21-year-olds Keely Hodgkinson of Britain and Athing Mu of the United States – and they continued to push each other to ever-higher levels of performance.

The heart of the season, the World Athletics Championship final in Budapest, involved all three in a gripping final.

An 800m rivalry for ages?

Hodgkinson, narrowly beaten by her US rival at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the previous year’s World Championships, finally got the better of her in the Hungarian capital as she finished in 1:56.34, with Mu – who had made a late decision to defend her title – one place behind her in 1:56.61.

One place in front of Hodgkinson, however, was the Kenyan who had beaten her to the Commonwealth title in Birmingham a year earlier. 

The exuberant Moraa, a world bronze medalist the year before, literally skipped over the line as she secured her first global gold in a personal best time of 1:56.03.

Mu, who before these championships had raced just once over this distance since winning gold in Oregon the previous year ahead of Hodgkinson and Moraa, led at the bell and into the finishing straight.

But as the trio pressed for the line, the defending champion came under pressure from both sides as Hodgkinson, so set on ending her run of victories, challenged on the inside, while Moraa charged on the outside.

Something had to give, and in the end it wasn’t the mercurial Kenyan, who greeted her victory by jumping and veering like a freed colt, her ponytail jolting behind her like a mane, before getting down to the serious business of dancing.

The manner in which Moraa had beaten Britain’s newly established world silver medalist on her home soil in Birmingham the previous year was uniquely random – the Kenyan began at the front and went all the way to the back again before reversing the effect and coming through for unexpected and unheralded gold.

Here, however, she ran an exemplary race, staying within range of Mu throughout before striking for home halfway down the finishing straight as the US runner, who had done very well to qualify after nearly being knocked off her feet by a falling runner in her semifinal, failed to find anything extra when she most needed it.

For Hodgkinson, whose transit from top class junior to top class senior in Tokyo was so swift and impressive, the occasion was bittersweet. One rival vanquished; another not.

While the focus was on this hugely talented trio, the rest of the field produced results of the highest quality as all eight finished inside two minutes.

Mu’s compatriot Raevyn Rogers, the Olympic bronze medalist, finished fourth in a season’s best of 1:57.45, one place ahead of the Briton who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, Jemma Reekie (1:57.72).

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In what was a super-swift final, Mu’s other teammate Nia Akins was sixth in a personal best of 1:57.73, with Jamaica’s Adelle Tracey seventh in 1:58.41, also a personal best, and 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda eighth in 1:59.18.

Moraa had made all the early running in the Wanda Diamond League, winning in Rabat, Lausanne and Silesia, although Hodgkinson was winner in Paris, lowering her British record by 0.11 to what was then the world lead of 1:55.77.

Mu ended the season on a high, though, winning at the Wanda Diamond League Final in a world-leading national record of 1:54.97 with Hodgkinson improving her own British record to 1:55.19 and Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica taking third in 1:55.96.

Major winners

World Championships: Mary Moraa (KEN) 1:56.03

Wanda Diamond League: Athing Mu (USA) 1:54.97

Asian Championships: Tharushi Karunarathna (SRI) 2:00.66

South American Championships: Flavia de Lima (BRA) 2:01.82

Pan-American Games: Sahily Diago (CUB) 2:02.71

Asian Games: Tharushi Karunarathna (SRI) 2:03.20

By World Athletics