In a close race, Athing Mu comes away with an expected win.

The crowd at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., roared as Mu and Hodgkinson ran side by side for the final 100 meters. Mu outleaned Hodgkinson at the finish line to win with a time of 1 minute 56.30 seconds, beating Hodgkinson by just eight-hundredths of a second. Mary Moraa of Kenya finished third. Hodgkinson also finished behind Mu at the 800-meter Olympic final last summer, setting a national record with a time of 1:55.88.

Hodgkinson and Mu each hold national records, have won Olympic medals and, now, world championship medals, too. They are the same age — 20 years old — and each other’s fiercest competitor in the event.

Hodgkinson said that she was happy with another silver, this one a world championship medal, but that it was somewhat bittersweet to have been “so close” to gold.

Mu said that she had been expecting Hodgkinson to push her through the finish line, and that she had felt, but not seen, Hodgkinson on her left side during the final 100 meters.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/sports/athing-mu-keely-hodgkinson.html