Oregon 22 World Athletics Champs Redux: Athing Mu and Jacob Ingebrigtsen win gold medals on the final and most exciting day of the championships

This is Justin Lagat’s wonderful column on day ten of the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships! I thought you might enjoy it today to remind us of how lucky we are to have 4 global champs in 2022! 

It would appear as though the event organizers of the World Athletics Championships had known in advance about the events that would yield world records and leading performances and saved them for the last day of the World Athletics Championships in Hayward Field.

The performance of the day was arguably Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who ran an even faster time than the world record of 12.12 she had just set in the semi-finals of the women’s 100mH to win gold in a wind-assisted (+2.5) 12.06. She becomes Nigeria’s first ever gold medalist at the World Championships.

Sweden’s Armand Mondo Duplantis jumped a world record of 6.21, breaking his own previous 6.20 to win the gold medal in the men’s Pole Vault.

Athing Mu of the USA won the women’s 800 meters in a world-leading time of 1:56.30, after a close battle on the home straight with Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson.

Mu took charge of the race on the second lap after Ethiopia’s Deribe Welteji had led the first lap in 57.09. On turning the last bend, Mu created a little gap on the inside lane and Hodgkinson took the opportunity to pull up parallel to her. The two battled together appearing shoulder to shoulder for a moment before Mu summoned more strength towards the finish line to edge Hodgkinson by 0.08 of a second.

Hodgkinson’s silver medal becomes Great Britain’s second medal in the event after
Kelly Holmes in 2003. It was also the fourth medal for Great Britain in the women’s 800 and they’re first since Jenny Meadows won bronze in 2009.

Mary Moraa of Kenya ran a personal best time of 1:56.71 to take the bronze medal, giving Kenya a total of 6 medals at the world championships in this event and their first since 2015.

To tell the toughness of the competition in this event, all the three medalists ran faster than the previous 2022 world-leading time of 1:57.01.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won the only gold medal for his country at the championships in the men’s 5,000m after running 13:09.24. The best a Norwegian had ever placed in this event at the World Championships was in 5th place that Ingebrigtsen had recorded at the 2019 Doha World championships.

Interestingly, just like it happened in the women’s 1500m and 5,000m races, the silver medalists in the 1500m event became the gold medalists in the 5000m final.

Jacob Krop of Kenya won the silver medal at 13:09.98. This gives Kenya 15 medals in this event and makes the country the leader at the events medal table.

Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo won bronze in 13:10.20, a second medal in the event for Uganda after Moses Kipsiro’s bronze in 2007.