PARIS, France, Aug 3 – All the three Kenyans in the women’s 800m led by world champion Mary Moraa have booked slots in Sunday’s Paris Olympic semifinal after Vivian Chebet became the first beneficiary of the newly introduced repechage heat.
Chebet squeezed in as one of the two fastest from the four Heats after her cluster recorded the fastest time, crossing the line second in 1:59.31.
Now that Team Kenya is complete alongside Lilian Odira, Moraa, the Commonwealth Games champion, is resorting to divine intervention.
Moraa finished second in her heat while Odira, who beat the reigning world champion at the Kenyan national trials, finished third to also secure an automatic qualification slot.
“I can confidently say we ran well depending on the kind of training we went through and the way the coaches guided us. Now our target is qualifying for finals. The rest we leave it to God. Everyone has trained well and I can say after the last three years we were talking of 2024 and here we are in Paris. We pray that God gets us to the final. There are three medals, gold, silver and bronze and no one knows who will win them,” said Moraa.
Tokyo 2020 was Moraa’s first Olympics but she believes she is wiser in Paris. “It was my first time to reach the semis of the Olympic Games. Now I have the much-needed experience.”
Moraa won the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, a bronze medal in the event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and a gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
She is the Kenyan record holder for the 400 metres. She was the 2022 Diamond League 800 m champion.
Mary Moraa Profile-
Name: Mary Moraa
Sport: 800m
Born: June 15, 2000
Weight: 56kgs
Height: 5.6ft
Personal best
200m: 25.48 (Nairobi 2017)
400m: 50.38 (Nairobi 2023) NR
800m: 1:56.03 (Budapest 2023)
1,000m: 2:34.71 (Heusden-Zolder 2021)
Mile Road: 5:11.0 (Duluth 2018)
4x400m Relay: 3:32.28 (Birmingham 2022)
4x400m Mixed Relays: 3:11.88 (Nairobi 2024)
Semifinals at the Tokyo Games