Goule-Toppin has big chance to win historic 800m medal

No Jamaican athlete has ever won a medal in the women’s 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships, and next week in Budapest, Natoya Goule-Toppin will be hoping to make history in the event.

When the first round of the event gets under way on August 23 at 3:05 a.m. Jamaican time, the 32 year-old Goule-Toppin will be hoping to go all the way to the final. Goule-Toppin, who won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, in 2018, will be aiming for a top-three finish and become the first Jamaican to pick up a medal in the event.

After a sixth-place finish in Doha in 2019 and fifth last year in Eugene, Goule-Toppin, the national record holder in the event with 1:56.15, has been in great form this season. She has been very busy on the Diamond League circuit, competing five times, and she is the event leader with 30 points.

She was fourth in Rabat, third in Paris and Lausanne, and second in Silesia and London. Her performance in London, where she clocked a season’s best 1:57.61, behind Great Britain Jemma Reekie, was by far her best run this season. She finished just ahead of 2019 World champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda by one hundredth of a second.

With defending champion Athing Mu of the United States unlikely to defend her title in Budapest, Goule-Toppin, who is ranked fourth in the event going into the championships, will definitely benefit from her absence here.

Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, who narrowly lost in the final to Mu last year, is the world leader and now favourite for gold in Budapest with her 1:55.77 clocking in winning the Paris Diamond League. Mary Maraa of Kenya, who was third in Eugene last year, is ranked number two with 1:56.85 after winning the Silesia Diamond League. Reekie, with her win in London in 1:57.30, is the third ranked in the event .

That last run by Goule-Toppin in London would have given her a lot of confidence going into Budapest, and another good performance is expected here. Any improvement on her time could get her in the top three.