You wouldn't have believed it even if you saw it twice, that with maybe 50 meters to go in the women's 800m final on Sunday, on the final day of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, the defending Olympic and World champion was outpaced. 

But on this day it was true, and its result, the shocking victory of 23-year-old Kenyan Mary Moraa over American champion Athing Mu, 21, was the race of the night on the final day of action inside the National Athletics Centre. 

Moraa's final move outlegged Mu, who led down the final straightaway but who ultimately couldn't hold on. She staggered in the final meters as the Kenyan passed her on the outside and Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson went to the inside. 

Moraa claimed her first World title in 1:56.03, with Hodgkinson following in 1:56.34. Mu crossed the line in third in 1:56.61.

Moraa, last year's third-place finisher in Eugene, had to hold off Hodgkinson, who stepped past Mu with 30 meters to go and claimed silver for the third straight year after second-place finishes at the Olympics and World Championships in 2021 and 2022. 

However, it was Moraa's race, and night. 

She punched the air, then jumped for joy and later danced. 

Mu had looked good over the rounds, looking clean and running with ease in round one. 

While round two featured a near catastrophe, she still managed to qualify automatically to the final, a performance that gave merit to the fact that she was threat to win in any scenario.

Mary Moraa pulls off the upset! 🇰

1:56.03 for a personal best as she passes Athing Mu down the homestretch to win over the defending champion.#WorldAthleticsChamps

 Keely Hodgkinson 🇬 - 1:56.34
 Athing Mu 🇺 - 1:56.61

Getty pic.twitter.com/LKkvfMydHY

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 27, 2023

Sunday's final was essentially's Mu race to lose. 

But her shocking tie-up provided an entry-way for the Kenyan, who had only been running the 800m for three seasons after youth-level success in the 200m and 400m. 

Moraa had run the 400m, in fact, at the World Championships in Doha. 

But last year was a breakthrough. A win at the Commonwealth Games, paired with a bronze at Worlds last year in 1:56.71, gave Moraa the resolve that may have come in handy on Sunday. 

American Raeyvn Rogers was fourth in 1:57.45 while Nia Akins finished sixth in 1:57.73.