Mary Moraa reveals strategy behind dominant win at Lausanne Diamond League

Mary Moraa reveals strategy behind dominant win at Lausanne Diamond League

Joel Omotto 05:30 - 23.08.2024

World champion Mary Moraa has explained how she managed to bounce back to winning ways at the Lausanne Diamond League having failed to clinch gold at the Olympics.

World champion Mary Moraa is delighted that her tactics came off this time after winning the 800m race at the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday.

Moraa ran a dominant race, taking control in the first lap, before slowing it down only to sprint off in the final 200m to leave her rivals in her wake.

She clocked 1:57.91 for first place ahead of British duo Georgia Bell (1:58.53) and Rekkie Jemma (1:58.73), who finished in second and third positions respectively.

Having seen her tactics fail to pay off at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she managed a bronze medal as Briton Keely Hodgkinson won gold, Moraa is delighted that everything went well in the Swiss city.

“I´m delighted to return here in Lausanne, and to perform at this level again,” Moraa said after the race.

“It was a very good race and I executed it well. I´m so grateful, for the race, the crowd. I´m extremely happy of how it all went out.”

Just like she had done in the past and to great effect, Moraa started quickly, stretching her opponents in the first lap, before slowing off, but put on the afterburners in the final 200m to win by a big gap.

It was her second Diamond League win of the season since the season-opening leg in Doha in May and she had managed second place at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene Diamond League, the same month, behind Hodgkinson.

With Hodgkinson withdrawing from the rest of the season due to an injury, Moraa has an opportunity to dominate the race with meetings in Silesia, Roma and Zurich still to come before the season finale in Brussels.

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