WACO, TX — Olympic champion Athing Mu is set to make her outdoor 800m debut this weekend at the 2022 Michael Johnson Invitational on Saturday, 23 April. The meeting will take place here at Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium in Waco, Texas.
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Mu, the Olympic champion at the 2021 Tokyo Games last summer, has already made appearances in the 400m (51.75) and 600m (1:24.13) as well as a 4x400m appearance to go along with her indoor one-mile run (4:37.99) so it’s only fitting that the teenage star will lineup next in her specialty this weekend.
In Waco on Saturday, the 19-year-old will race from the fourth and final heat of the women’s 800m and she is expected to dominate, given her superior talent and personal best.
Mu owns a lifetime best of 1:55.04 and has dipped under the 1:56-barrier twice in her career. Read more: Abby Steiner runs 22.05; Christian Coleman posts 19.92 at Kentucky Invitational
She will return to the Michael Johnson Invitational this season with the hope of challenging the 1:57.73 meeting record she clocked to win the event last year during her lone collegiate season at Texas A&M.
Also returning this year to take on the Olympic champion is Baylor senior Aaliyah Miller, who ran 2:00.87 for second place last year. That time remains her PB, but she will be buzzing to better that mark this weekend.
Kendra Chambers, who has a lifetime best of 2:00.76, will be aiming to improve on her fifth-place finish from last year, while seeking to use the talents of Mu and Miller to pull her to a possible sub-2:00 clocking for the first time in her career.
Also scheduled to compete at the 2022 Michael Johnson Invitational this weekend is American Trayvon Bromell, who will lineup in the men’s 200m on Friday, as well as fellow USA stars Dalilah Muhammad, Tamar Clark and Brittany Brown, and Jamaica’s Shiann Salmon.
