Kenya secured a fourth spot finish during the just concluded World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States as Mary Moraa claimed the country’s last medal at the World settling for bronze in the women’s 800m final on Monday.
She clocked a personal best time of one minute and 56.71 seconds to lose the battle to Olympic champion Athing Mu of the United States, who struck gold in 1:56.30.
She is outstanding! Right! 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿Bronze for Kenya’s Mary Moraa in women’s 800m at #Oregon2022 #WorldAthleticsChampionships #WorldAthleticsChampionships2022 pic.twitter.com/MAufXaE374
— Alex Isaboke (@alexisaboke) July 25, 2022
Since the inception of the championships in 1983, Kenya has only won two gold edals in the women’s 800 metres Janeth Jepkosgei in 2007 Osaka and Eunice Sum in 2013 Moscow.
Her third place finish ensured Team Kenya finished 4th on the medal table standing with a total of 10 medals with 2 being Gold, five silvers and three bronze.
Olympic champions Faith Chepng’etich (1,500m) and Emmanuel Korir (800m) won gold medals for Kenya in their specialty.
Beatrice Chebet (5,000m), Hellen Obiri (10,000m), Judith Jeptum (marathon), Stanley Waithaka (10,000m) and Jacob Krop( 5,000m) gave the country silver medals.
Margaret Chelimo (10,000m), Mary Moraa (800m) and Conseslus Kipruto (3,000m) settled for bronze.
During the last edition in Doha,Qatar, Kenya finished second with a total of 11 medals – five gold, two silver and four bronze medals.The East African nation won the exact total number of medal in the same order and also came second to the United States during the 2017 IAAF Athletics World Championships in London.
The country relinquished all its five titles from Doha in women’s marathon, men and women’s 3,000m steeplechase, women’s 5,000m and men’s 1,500m, but recaptured the women’s 1,500m and men’s 800m.
Hosts United States of America finished on top of the medal standings with 33 medals;13 gold,9 silver and 11 bronze while Ethiopia were runners up after collecting 10 medals overally;4 gold,4 silver and 2 bronze.Jamaica had the same number of medals finishing 3rd with 2 gold,7 silver and a bronze.
Kenya’s focus now shifts to the Commonwealth Games set for July 28-August 8 in Birmingham,United Kingdom.
“Commonwealth Games provides a chance for us to redeem the country’s image as an athletics powerhouse. We believe the coaches have acquired valuable lessons from the sojourn in Oregon and will definitely look to rectify our mistakes. In the meantime, there are still more chances remaining for the country to medal in Oregon and maybe topple Ethiopia in second position,” Barnaba Korir, Team Kenya Head of Delegation for Oregon 2022 wrote in a statement issued on Thursday.
Kenya is represented by 127 athletes in athletics, boxing, squash, hockey, badminton, 3 on 3 basketball, cycling, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, lawn bowls and para-cycling.
