Less than a month after claiming the 800m Olympic gold with an American record, Aggie professional Athing Mu bettered her time by winning the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday (21 Aug) at historic Hayward Field.
In her Wanda Diamond League debut, Athing Mu reigned supreme, stopping the clock at 1:55.04. The 19-year old bettered her previous American Record by .17 seconds and set a meet record while moving to an unblemished 7-0 since turning professional on 19 June.
“I knew this was probably going to be a little tougher coming off the Olympic games and running a PR there,” Mu said.
“I wasn’t looking at time; I just wanted to come here and run with whoever is out there and just be competitive. I’m very satisfied with 1:55. A PR again this season, that’s pretty great,” added Athing Mu.
“The Hayward magic they call it. I think this was the greatest field of people ever, so just to experience it was really nice.”
Practically running the race against herself, Mu demolished the field by 2.5 seconds as fellow American Kate Grace finished second at 1:57.60, and Jamaican Natoya Goule placed third with a time of 1:57.71.
In her one season in the Maroon & White, Mu rewrote the record books. She set 11 collegiate all-time top-12 marks, including six all-time collegiate records. Individually, she owns the indoor 600m (1:25.80), indoor 800m (1:58.40), outdoor 400m (49.57) and outdoor 800m (1:57.73) collegiate records. She anchored two collegiate record relays, the indoor 4x400m (3:26.27/50.27 split) and the outdoor 4x400m (3:22.34/48.85 split). Mu ended the season with eight Texas A&M records.
She completed the lone campaign as a four-time NCAA First Team All-American, including three NCAA event titles (indoor and outdoor 4x400m, outdoor 400m).
Athing Mu also won three Southeastern Conference titles (indoor 800m, outdoor 400m and outdoor 4x400m.)
Athing Mu is likely to do great things over the next 8-10 years. I hope the public will be patient and not expect too much too soon and not push her to things for which she might not be emotinally settled. I have little doubt that the world record in the 800 will be her, but an improvement, year to year of aboout 1 second would be perfect. 3 years and the WR is hers. I want her to enjoy, to the max, the magnificant career ahead of her; to savor each win and each record and not worry about whether or not the next race or the next championship will bring about something greater. I was a middle of the pack runner, at best, but ran competitively from 1953 to 2005 and was fortunate enough to have been on two national championship teams, so I’ve “seen it all.”
She’s done this at age 19, including that anchor leg in the olympic 4×400 finals, where she left second and third so far behind they weren’t even within the video picture as she approached the finish.
There’s no telling what she might do by her mid-twenties.