Diamond League: Moraa set to face top opposition in Eugene
Kenya's short-distance runner Mary Moraa and her close rivals will clash again during the Wanda Diamond League in Prefontaine Classic set for Eugene on May 25, 2024.
Moraa, Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson are the three women who’ve claimed the 800m medals at the past two World Championships and the Eugene meeting is expected to be fireworks.
Mu won in Eugene last year when Hayward Field hosted the Wanda Diamond League Final and having finished third at the World Championships three months prior, she will be looking for revenge.
However, the Olympic champion gained revenge on home soil and kicked to victory in a US record of 1:54.97.
On the other hand, Hodgkinson – as she had done at the Olympics in 2021, as well as at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships – finished second on that occasion in a British record of 1:55.19, according to World Athletics.
Moraa wound up fourth in that race, but the Kenyan had won the biggest prize of the year in Budapest, taking the world title in a personal best of 1:56.03.
The trio have clashed just three times in the past, with Mu coming out on top in two of those encounters.
It’s the second big middle-distance clash announced by the Prefontaine Classic, following the news last month that Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen will take on world champion Josh Kerr and North American record-holder Yared Nuguse in the Bowerman mile.
