September 25, 2025
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"There’s been three years of a lot of hard work and hard times to get to this. This is the thing in my mind, that dream and goal that’s kept me going. Once I put that into perspective, it was a lot easier to ride that wave of momentum into Worlds."
About two months after we caught up with Sage Hurta-Klecker after making her first U.S. team, she's back on the CITIUS MAG Podcast to recap her experience at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
Sage made it count. After sneaking into the 800m final as the last qualifier, she unleashed a fearless performance, dropping nearly two full seconds off her PB to finish fifth in the final in 1:55.89. This made her the third fastest American of all-time and now sits behind legends like Athing Mu and Ajee Wilson. She's finishing the year with 12 outdoor 800s and 12 sub-two performances. Sage proved that she belongs among the very best in the world and you'll hear in this episode that the 800m is where she's planning to stay for the time being.
This was a fun one. We go through all of her experiences from training to the time in between races and how her mindset shifted throughout the rounds. I love doing these recaps and Sage is an open book with all of it, including the training. She's actually asking for more people to take notice of her on Strava, so go ahead and hit her with a follow there.
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Host: Chris Chavez | @chris_j_chavez on Instagram
Guest: Sage Hurta-Klecker | @hurtasage on Instagram
Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | @jasminefehr on Instagram
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and on Feb. 15th, 2025 finally broke five minutes for the mile.
