1:53 is the number as golden girl Moraa dreams big at Paris Olympics

World 800 metres champion Mary Moraa has a dream this season.

It won’t just be about improving her current personal best of one minute and 56.03 from her world-title winning feat last year but a sub 1:56 or even better.

Is Moraa’s training regime targeting the 800m World Record before the Paris Olympic Games? 

Your guess is as good as it gets as Moraa’s coach Alex Sang unleashed his athlete’s road to the Paris Olympic Games tentative program.

“We are not talking about going for the world record yet but I am preparing her for a solid personal best that can easily and possibly produce anything including a world record, that is somehow a tall order,” said Sang.

Moraa turns 24 on June 15 this year while the women’s 800m world record will have stood for 41 years come July 26. 

Sang took Moraa through her first track training this season at Nyayo National Stadium on Friday, having traversed three counties--Kajiado, Nandi and Kisumu--in search of endurance ahead of the busy season.

“Last year, we focused more on sprints but we have changed this time around to endurance and that is why we shifted our training from Ngong to Nandi and then to the lower altitude of Kisumu in December,” explained Sang.

Sang’s recipe will put her athlete in line to attempt breaking the 600m World Best that stands at 1:21.77 before going for a sub 1:56 either at the Oslo Diamond League on May 30 or Stockholm Diamond League.

Paris Olympic Summer Games will run from July 26 to August 11 this year in the French capital where Moraa, if all goes well, will be attempting to make history as the second Kenyan to win the women's 800m title after the national record holder Pamela Jelimo at 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The women’s 800m world record of 1:53.28 was set on July 26, 1983 Munich, Germany by Jarmila Kratochvílová from the Czech Republic.

Jelimo is the only Kenyan to have come close to breaking the world record with her mind-blowing 1:54.01 achieved on August 29, 2008 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Her time is ranked third all-time best after Kratochvílová (1:53.28) and Russian Nadezhda Olizarenko (1:53.43).    

Meanwhile, Caster Semenya of South Africa holds the 600m World Best of 1:21.77 set on August 27, 2017 in Berlin.

Semenya achieved the feat when she crushed Cuban Ana Fidelia Quirot's time of 1:22.63 that had stood since July 25, 1997 from Guadalajara, Mexico.

At one time, Jelimo was the third all-time best in the 600m with her time of 1:23.35 set on July 5, 2012 in Liège behind Quirot and Mozambique legend Maria Mutola (1:22.87). She is now ranked seventh all-time best.        

Sang reckons that Moraa surprised many when she won women’s 400m in a National Record time of 50.44 seconds at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, National Stadium, Gaborone on April 29 last year.
She would then improve the National Record to 50.38 three months later with victory during the trials for Budapest World Athletics Championships at Nyayo National Stadium.

“I want her to run 400m, 500m and 600m to see how it will go...she can easily crack sub 1:56 if she stays focused like she was last year. She has come of age and knows what to do and what is right for her,” said Sang. 

Moraa, the Commonwealth Games 800m champion, intends to start her season with 400m at the Third Athletics Kenya Track and Field Meeting on January 26 to 27 at Nyayo National Stadium before defending her 800m title at Kip Keino Classic on February 2 at the same venue.   

The 2022 Diamond League Trophy winner will then start her 2024 Diamond League campaign in Shanghai on April 27 before returning home for the Kenya Police Service Athletics Championships on May 9-10 and then head to the United States of America for the Prefontaine Classic on May 25.

After Prefontaine, Moraa’s handlers will then look for an event that offers 600m before competing either in Oslo on May 30 or Stockholm on June 2.

Moraa will then seek her second appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris after she reached the semi-finals in Tokyo in 2021. 

“Training is falling in place well after changing our program to start earlier than usual,“ said Moraa, adding that her first session on tartan track proved exciting after a couple of sessions on murram track in Ngong area.

“We have started speed training earlier than usual and that is clear enough on what we expect this year...we are aiming at something much better,” said Moraa, who reckons that being an Olympic year, she had to adjust some things in her training.

“This one is bigger than the world championships and it’s every athlete’s dream to not only make it to the Olympics but perform well,” noted Moraa. “I tasted the Olympics cake in Tokyo and I am ready for it again in Paris.”

Moraa said they will have covered good ground before hitting the international calendar in April at the Kip Keino Classic.

Moraa drew a great lesson from 2023, a year that saw her become the third Kenya woman to win a world title after Janeth Jepkosgei in 2007 Osaka and Eunice Sum in 2013 Moscow.  

Moraa’s target was to medal in Budapest last year after she secured a surprise bronze in Oregon behind home athlete Athing Mu and Briton Keely Hodgkinson in 2022. 

“Winning gold was simply phenomenal and a good lesson to me that there are no shortcuts but hard work and discipline. It changed a lot of things in my running career,” Moraa explained. “It’s all about believing in yourself and working towards meeting your goals.”

Moraa said above all, one has to listen to what the coaches say and believe and trust in God. While analysts have predicted a season that Moraa, Mu and Hodgkinson will rule women’s 800m scene, Moraa opined that athletics is full of surprises. 

“Many had predicted a repeat of Oregon in Budapest but God is good that I emerged the best. Anything can happen in Paris with unknown athletes rising to the occasion to stun favourites. One can only pray for good health and God’s mercies,” said Moraa.

Talking about the world record, Moraa said it requires astute planning and execution.

“Staying for four decades is clear enough how hard it has been for it to go down but nothing is impossible,“ explained Moraa, adding that her rise in 800m has been gradual from 2:08 in 2019 to 1:56 in 2023. 

Moraa equaled legendary British middle distance runner Roger Gilbert Bannister's rare achievement in One Mile to Kelvin Kiptum’s recent world marathon record accomplishment.   

Bannister became the first athlete to finish the mile run in under four minutes, a feat many thought was impossible. 

Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. 

However, Bannister accomplished this feat on May 6, 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, clocking three minutes and 59.4 seconds with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. 

Kiptum became the first man to run a marathon under two hours and one minute when he clocked 2:00:35 to win the Chicago Marathon on October 8 last year, lowering Eliud Kipchoge’s record of 2:01:09 from 2022 Berlin. 

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