Beatrice Chebet: My parents mean the world to me

Freshly-minted World Cross Country Championships senior women’s 10 kilometres champion Beatrice Chebet has dedicated her victory to her parents Francis Kirui and Lilian Chepkoech.

Chebet said her parents' support and prayers have been the foundation. She asked God to grant them many years so that they can witness more victories from her.

Chebet said that her glide to the top has started and is unstoppable, having scaled to senior ranks in style.

“It has not been easy but it’s all about discipline and hard work,” said Chebet, whose star started rising when she won the World Under-20 5,000m title in 2018 before going on to claim the World Cross Country Under-20 6km crown in 2019.

Chebet would then claim silver in 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships in 2022 in Oregon, United States before winning the Commonwealth Games 5,000m title in Birmingham, England also last year.

“We have always supported her since we realised that she had athletics talent when she was in class four in Kericho,”  said Kirui. “We are just happy because she is such a blessing and we thank God for her talent.”

Kirui said that they also urged her to also take both education and athletics seriously. “We are glad she took our advice and combined them well to clear her primary and secondary school education before getting recruited at Kenya Police,” said Kirui.

Chebet attributed her success and the rest of the team at the World Cross Country Championships held Saturday in Bathurst, Australia to good preparations and thanked Athletics Kenya, the government and sponsors for enabling it.

Chebet was speaking at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport upon arrival from Australia  shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

On her victory, Chebet said that she had given up after Ethiopia’s world record holder in 10,000m and 5,000m, Letesenbet Gidey overtook her in the last lap and looked set to win.

“I had already given up and knew that I would settle for silver but God works in mysterious ways…I don’t know what happened,” said Chebet. “At times you just have to believe in yourself and have  faith that anything is possible.”

Chebet said she is still shocked about the turn of events saying that she wasn’t aware that Gidey had taken a tumble. “I just found myself at the finishing tape with no Gidey in sight. I only realised that she had tumbled after finishing the race,” said Chebet.

Chebet said that the great team work and support they had for each other during the training in Kigari, Embu spurred Team Kenya to victory in Australia.

Chebet now turns her focus to the World Athletics Championships scheduled for August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.