Paris — With every competition day a crucial test of skills and mental resolve, World and Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa is resorting to divine intervention.
Moraa as well as debutant Lilian Odira both automatically qualified for the semi-final of the women's 800m at the Olympic Games in Paris and were joined by Vivian Chebet who was a beneficiary of the newly introduced repechage.
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 trained us. Our target now is qualifying for final," Moraa said.
"The rest we leave it to God because everyone has trained well. 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," Moraa disclosed.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics was Moraa's first Olympics but she believes she is now more experienced Paris.
"In Tokyo it was my first time to reach the semis, now three years later, I have acquired the much-needed experience and how to tactically approach a race," Moraa attributed.
Moraa won the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, a bronze medal in the same event in 2022 World Athletics Championships hosted in Oregon, USA, and a gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
-Mary Moraa Fact File-
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
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Paris, France -
