Star Athing Mu makes return in 800 at U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials

Reigning Olympic gold medalist Athing Mu made her triumphant return Friday at Hayward Field in her first 800-meter race since she reset her own American record in September on the very same track during the Prefontaine Classic.

The 22-year-old wasn’t quite as fast Friday in the first round of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, finishing third in her heat in 2 minutes, 1.73 seconds, but she said the race was more about making her return and getting her legs under her after a hamstring injury kept her away from meets over the last several months.

“It was good, I felt like it was pretty controlled,” Mu said. “Kind of how I felt the semis would go … For the most part I think it was pretty smooth. It felt like my first race back so of course the legs were getting a little wake-up, but it was nice.”

Mu, who became the first American to win an 800 gold medal in 53 years at the Olympics in Tokyo, had a disappointing bronze finish at the World Championships in Budapest last fall before bouncing back a month later to reset the American record at the Pre Classic Diamond League final in 1:54.97.

Since then she’s been totally focused on her health and her hamstrings.

“It was all health related,” Mu said of her decision not to run before the trials. “We had a plan going into this season that we wanted to run into shape. That’s what a lot of professional athletes want to do. Unfortunately we had something happen and we had to take a step back — it’s just the cards we were played. If we had a better situation we would’ve been competing more but it’s always the best to be healthy.”

Mu will run in the semifinals at 6:11 p.m. at Hayward Field in hopes of making the final at 7:32 p.m. Monday.

Here’s a look at some other events on Sunday’s schedule.

• Women’s hammer final, 5 p.m. – Oregon senior Shelby Moran finished seventh overall during Friday’s qualifying round to make Sunday’s 12-woman final. Brooke Andersen uncorked a throw of 250 feet, 2 inches on her first attempt to lead the first round and will be one of the favorites to make it to Paris, along with DeAnna Price.

• Men’s pole vault final, 5:45 p.m. – Chris Nilsen, the reigning Olympic silver medalist and a silver medalist at World Championships in Eugene in 2022, cleared 18-8¼ on Friday to advance to the final along with former world champion Sam Hendricks, who made the Olympic team in 2021 for Tokyo before being forced to sit out the Olympics due to testing positive for COVID-19. Also notably, American record holder KC Lightfoot failed to clear the finals qualifying mark and did not make the finals.

• Men’s javelin final, 6:40 p.m. – Curtis Thompson, the only American that has an Olympic-qualifying world ranking in the javelin, had the best mark in the qualifying round Friday with a 261-foot, 3-inch best throw. None of the competitors have hit the Olympic standard mark of roughly 280-6.

• Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final, 7:07 p.m. – Making one last run at the Olympics, American record holder and 35-year-old Evan Jager (8:27.07) qualified for Sunday’s final after finishing second in his preliminary heat to Kenneth Rooks, though he’s still looking for the Olympic standard. Hillary Bor and Anthony Rotich are the only runners in the final who have hit the standard of 8:15.0 already this season, making for what should be a fast final.

Day 3 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials schedule

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Athing Mu makes return in 800 at U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials