Tsige Duguma (ETH) Backs Up World Indoors 800m Gold with 1:57.73 wire-to-wire at African Games

Lets hope Ethiopia can start turning out some good Women 800 runners, for a long time they had an occasional decent runner in the Women's 1500 but no depth, but the last few years they have had depth of good runners in the 1500 lets hope they add the 800 and Womens Steeplechase

Agreed, those events are not nearly as interesting without a steady pipeline of front running Ethiopians

Moraa 50.57 to easily win the W400. The 800 might be the best event on the women’s side.

With Mary Moraa's performance today over the 400M, I bet she can crack the 800M world record

I don’t know, I think that’s a long way to go. She may crack 50 this year if she’s running this fast in March and then with Mu/her going out hard, fast times are certainly easy to see.

Here are Moraa’s top 400 times:

50.38 - 07/23

50.44 - 04/23

50.48 - 07/23

50.57 - 03/24

50.67 - 09/22

50.67 - 06/23

So it’s crazy to figure that this recent run means she can improve her 800 from 1:56.03 to under 1:53.28. I wouldn’t be too surprised if she eventually runs 1:54.xx though, especially given the strong competition she has in the event.

Five days after her 1:53.28 world record, Kratochvilova won gold at the World Championships in the 400m in 47.99, which was a world record at the time. Forty-one years later, it is still the #2 time in history. She ran sub-50 thirty times in her career.

* Fifteen days after

Just got to watch the race. It is absolutely gusting out there with a -2.1 registered in the 100mH. All things considered, she might be able to drop that PB down a bit soon.

Concerning for Hodgkinson fans. She'll now be facing three women who have 50 second speed over 400. The only path to victory I can see for her is if it's hard from the gun, maybe going through 400 in 55/56 and hoping her strength is good enough to carry her home. Same for Jemma Reekie who also doesn't have amazing open 400 speed.

Agree with your comments about Hodgkinson, she needs to get faster at 400m. I have never heard how her training this year has been progressing hopefully she has been injury free and alot stronger so she can really attack the last 300m and go 1.54.30. That's the kind of time I think will win gold at paris.

I agree it's in Hodgkinson's best interest to get faster over 400m, however, remember that in both Eugene 22 and Budapest 23, her final 200m was faster than Mu's, so her closing speed is not an issue. Also note, there are a couple of women higher up the world all-time list than Keely with slower PBs over 400m (Ceplak & Jelimo, with Melinte slower over 600m - but no stated 400m PB)

For me, Hodgkinson's problem is her 400m-600m portion of the race, this is where she let's others get too far ahead (the DL final in 2023 being an exception). If she does not want to lead, then she needs to be closer to the lead.

Let's also see how Duguma does off a fast pace as well. On paper she is still quite far behind the others in terms of PBs.

Isn't she unbeaten in 800 races since she just decided to move up?

Her World Indoors reminded me of that dude who used to win clean up in the women's 800, Jelimo.

That's a good point, we need to see Duguma in a DL. Hodgkinson's preferred race is to go through in 57/58 and run a slight negative split. I'm not sure if Duguma has had to run with that yet. Reekie messed up in Glasgow by letting it go so slow but the Big Three are a different challenge altogether. Let's see how Duguma shapes up against them.

Keely has been getting her 400m time down the past number of years (from 56xx to 51.74) in order to close the gap on Mu and Moraa, and to enable her to get out faster and not go lactic. Reekie has the 1500m strength to hang on to a fast pace, but only so fast - if they go out in 55 and don't slow a lot, she is still in trouble, just as she is off a slow pace (like in Glasgow). 56/59 = 1.55 is where MU and Moraa want to be, even 55/58 might be possible (perhaps more for Mu with a pacer in front). What can Reekie run all out for 400m?

Reekie ran 55 for an open 400 in 2022. I don't know if that is representative or if she's got better but that's all that's on her record

That’s not often how the 800 works (burning the “kickers” with an aggressively fast opening lap). If Hodgkinson goes out in 55 it may work against her, being relatively closer to her all-out 400 and voiding her strength advantage. Her best chance is probably that she goes like 56.9 + 58.0 while the others go too hard too early and come back to her in the last 150.

I think she’s best when she runs her own race. She has a good finish and I think going out and fighting for the lead off a 26pt first 200 is not the move. It is hard to get by all these runners (especially Moraa who surges, and Mu who runs so wide). Duguma tactically seems like she will run like Moraa too. But a patient race may mean the others overextend themselves and as you said she can go by the last 150.

Hodgkinson is definitely best when running her own race (see Paris DL last year). Moraa messes with her with the fartlek business and I suspect Duguma will do the same. Will the fact that Moraa has been focusing on the 400 help or hinder her? We know she has 400m speed. Surely some 800m practice would benefit her more?

I think the problem will be if it is a sprint/slow down race. As per the indoors. But Keely is good at going round people whereas in the indoors Jemma kind of got caught out.