Athing Mu scratches from 1500, will focus soley on 800 at 2023 World Championships
By Robert JohnsonWorld and Olympic 800 champion Athing Mu, who surprised many distance aficionados by finishing second in the 1500 at the 2023 USATF Outdoor Championships on Saturday, has officially decided not to run the event at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Hungary in August. 2022 US champion Sinclaire Johnson, who finished fourth at USAs this year and was the top American at Worlsd last year (6th), will take her place on the team according to an instagram post by Johnson.
“Although I didn’t earn a top 3 placing, I was granted a spot to represent Team USA at World Champs in Budapest off of a scratch (thanks to @athiiing for giving up her spot). It’s not every day you line up next to an Olympic champ and I look forward to more battles over 1500m in the future!” wrote Johnson.
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The 1500/800 doable was doable at Worlds as there was no overlap between the events but the problem for Mu is the 1500 comes first on the schedule so it wouldn’t be a “free-roll” and might tire her out for her signature event, the 800. Also the first round of the 1500 is on the same day as the two rounds of the mixed gender 4 x 400, a team that Mu could potentially run on.
Talk about Mu’s decision to focus solely on the 800 on our world-famous messageboard. MB: Sinclaire Johnson will be racing 1500 at Worlds thanks to Athing Mu’s scratch .
