(Sports news) Christine Mboma and Athing Mu are both teenagers who have been one of the fastest women in their respective events. Athing Mu is 19 years old, she is the current Olympic champion in the 800m and a part of the 4x400m relay team. She has the 8th fastest time of all time in the 800m, her timing was 1:55:04 secs in August this year. She also has the two of the fastest timings this year at the event and also holds the second fastest time ever in the U20 women’s 800m.
Athing Mu created history for the US when she won the gold in the 800m event as she became the first US athlete in 53 years to win the women’s 800m event, the last time it happened was in 1968 Mexico Olympics when Madeline Manning won the gold. Athing Mu was leading from the start in the race, she completed the first lap in 57.82 but was still in close pursuit . In the last 300 meters there was a change in gear as Mu picked up her speed and began slowly increasing the gap between the rest of them, in the last 50 meters it became sure she would win the medal as another 19 year old Keely Hodgkinson of Britain would take the silver medal.
Athing has been one of the most promising athletes this year and without much exposure she made it big at her first Olympics. The world record for the women’s 800m event is 1:53:28 by Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983 and she was 32 years old when set the record. Athing clearly showed her speed on the biggest platform this year and has a major opportunity to break a 38 year record. She won the female rising athlete of the year award edging out Mboma, Keely Hodgkinson, 3000m steeplechase runner Zerfe Wondimagegn and hammer thrower Silja Kosonen.
Christine Mboma is an 18 year old athlete from Namibia. She was one of the two teen finalists in the women’s 200m final at the Tokyo Olympics, Mboma won the silver medal behind Elaine Thompson. Mboma was running in lane 5 right next to Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce in lane 4, Mboma was placed fourth in the last 70 meters of the race and overtook Fraser Pryce a few meters before the finish line. Mboma beat bronze medalist Gabby Thomas by six hundredth of a second as her timing of 21.81 secs thanks to a final nitro boost which got her the second position.
Mboma ran 21.78 secs a month later at Zurich which is the third fastest time this year and 19th fastest of all time. She is the current under 20 world record holder in 200m and 400m with a timing of 49.22 secs which is also the third fastest this year. She wasn’t allowed to compete in the 400m event at the Tokyo Olympics as the World Athletics (WA) does not allow female athletes to compete in the event who have blood testosterone levels above 5 nmol/L. Many athletes have been affected by this rule as some are born with this condition.
Athing Mu and Mboma have been the top runners at their respective events, they still have 2 more years for the Paris Olympics. They will have the world record in sight but will be much more focused to have a injury free run next season, they will also need adequate support from the respective federations from their country. They will be one of the athletes to watch out for in the 200m and 800m as the new generation are slowly catching up on the older ones.
