Keely Hodgkinson - 1:55.19!

If you look at improvement curves it's Keely who is improving more. She's gone from 1:55.88 to 1:55.19 since 2021. Moe has only cut .07 from her 2021 best.

Yes and has been completely consistent (I know with second places often but all fast times).

This year she hasn’t had a bad race in terms of time or finishing lower than 2nd place. Hence being the Diamond League champion. Look at Mu and Moora and they race far more inconsistently.

What do we think happened to Moora in this last race? Bad pacing? Or tired? She seemed unbeatable for a while this year.

Tactical error. She didn't get to the front early which allowed Hodgkinson to make it into her ideal type of race (57/58 first lap with an even-ish split). Mu followed smartly and had the legs over the last 10m. Moraa still hasn't shown she can run a 1:55 so she needs to take control early if she's going to win.

Yes you’re right. I thought Keely looked like she was pacing it really well. I guess now she knows what kind of race she needs to run to beat Moraa. Then work on 400m speed for next year versus Mu.

Foot speed, not enough foot speed

It looked to me as if Mu kept Hodgkinson in check from coming through on the inside of lane 1. Of course, both of them were likely eyeballs out so it remains whether Keely could have gotten through had there been an opening. Kudos to both of them for such a great race! And a long season for Keely too.

Why do people say this? A generation prior she would have had to race against Semenya and the DSD athletes. Prior to that, she would have had to race against the doped up East Germans. How is she unlucky to race now? The 800 is no more competitive now than it was in the past. In fact, the 800 is arguably one of the least competitive events in women's running (of the open events) right now

This is getting old. Acknowledge that you like Keely once and move on. This is T&F, not modeling 101. Don't shortchange the abilities of Athing Mu because you find Keely more pleasing. It's wrong to do so

Keely was flat-out and there was room to pass. Mu was just better. Getting tiresome with the Mu squeeze theories.
Moraa ran a foolish race. I think she thought Mu would take it out hard. When she didn’t she just ran extra and got caught out wide in an honest, even pace. She might’ve had something going on as well with the 400m withdrawal. Even running poor tactically she should be able to run 1:56. First off race since indoors so I wouldn’t make too much out of it. I think we saw in this race that Mu has some versatility. We knew she doesn’t need to go out hard to run fast (from college/some low-key races) but she can also run off the leader and deliver a nice kick. I still suspect Keely won’t have the lead at 400 in a global final.

Peyz and Kersey; Mu is not credible any more than anyone ever coached by that guy; quite the contrary; would you not agree that in 2023 the excuses of 1969-2022 of ‘but look at what the other are like’ or ‘everyone’s at it’ should not apply

I disagree. She was right there until 100m to go and completely fell off the back of those three. She didn't race the 400m last week at the DL when entered. Whatever prevented her from competing might also have been what made her race poorly (for her), meaning not at 100%. I Hope she doesn't think that her only winning tactic is to take the lead and then slow it down. Arop surprised many at World's coming off the back, just as did Rudisha in 2016, who says that she can't do that as well?

Just because she hadn't done it doesn't mean she couldn't. They were going plenty fast enough and she was still there, not as if she was leading and then fell apart (as Arop used to do). That was not the athlete we saw at World's. Mu was better than at World's because she learned from that race, perhaps she took it for granted that winning would be easy, and it wasn't, not that yesterday was either, but just back to the old Mu, but Keely is still there, but not as fast as her. Given how her season has gone, perhaps a poor day might be good for Moraa, a reality check. She is the least experienced 800m runner of the group, so any experience can be learned from, especially a negative one.

Both are mad good but Mu just sat and kicked on her.

If she sat on Mu, I bet it’s very very close.

Is this the same Keely who ran 1:23.41 indoors? What were people suggesting her outdoor time would be at the end of the 2023 season?

So Mu barely racing and not in her best shape beat Keely, imagine if she had raced all year and was in peak form. You guys obviously don't understand running. Many of the athletes that broke records completed all year long. Don't make excuses for her losing, Mu is just naturally better.

This is the first race with Mu and Moraa in it that I've seen Keely impose herself on. That's a great sign. She's been reactive in the past (especially in Budapest). Being proactive like this is the way to beat them, I think, even if it didn't work out completely yesterday. A year older, stronger and wiser next year and who knows?

Random, but I was just thinking yesterday how I hadn't heard "mad" used as an adjective since 7th or 8th grade, 15 years ago. How old are you? Genuinely curious if younger people are still using it, lol

edit: *adverb

That's the real takeaway. Athing Mu is the best in the world in the 800 despite the fact that she had a rough year.

Athing Mu took a long break from training at the end of 2022, moved to a different part of the country, got a new coach, skipped indoors, barely raced, experimented with the 1500, had a bad breakup with her boyfriend, and she still just ran sub 1:55.

If Athing Mu has a normal year in 2024 (both with training and her personal life) Keely and Moraa are in big trouble.