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Mary Moraa: Orphan who beat the odds to attain global stardom
Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa (centre) speaks during NTV’s Monday night sports show SportOn! on July 10, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Commonwealth Games 800m champ was orphaned at the age of two and did menial jobs
When the Kenyan national anthem rang out at the 32,000-seater Allexander Stadium during the medals ceremony for women’s 800 metres race at 2022 Commonwealth Games, beads of sweat which had formed on Mary Moraa’s forehead joined into rivulets, and tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. After many months of training, her moment of glory had finally come.
Weeks earlier, she had claimed bronze medal in 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
Mary Moraa of Kenya celebrates winning bronze in the Women's 800m Fina on day 10 of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 24, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon.
Standing on that podium in Birmingham, Moraa’s mind drifted thousands of kilometres away to her family home in Obwari village in Kisii.
She thought of the early years when her athletics journey was just starting. She remembered her past as a typical village girl orphaned at the age of two, having to run to and from school barefoot, covering approximately 12 kilometres with a huge bag on her back.
She remembered herself as a young girl working in farms in adjacent villages to raise money for purchasing her own pair of school uniform so as to join Ibacho High School upon finishing her studies at Nyankononi Primary School in 2014.
Kenya's Mary Moraa celebrates winning and taking the gold medal in the women's 800m final athletics event at the Alexander Stadium, on day nine of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, central England, on August 6, 2022.
To have overcome those challenges under the care of her elder sister Sarah Nyaboke, to stand on the podium in Birmingham brought tears to her eyes.
After claiming a surprise bronze medal in 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Moraa helped Kenya recapture the women’s 800m title at the Commonwealth Games.
“In Oregon, my coach Alex Sang told me to go to the final and to enjoy the race with no pressure. I knew American Athing Mu and Briton Keely Hodgkinson were the favourites, so to have won bronze was a big surprise to me,” said Moraa.
“In Birmingham, winning my first gold medal in a major championship was out of this world. I found myself dancing after winning,” Moraa explained. “I was in tears while receiving the medal because I recalled a lot of things from my past.”
Moraa says she recalled her humble beginnings in Kisii, and what she had just achieved for Kenya.
“Kenya’s national anthem is a prayer and when it was played, I found myself in tears recalling fellow orphans, who are my friends and my late parents,” Moraa said during NTV’s Monday night sports show SportOn! hosted by Bernard Ndong and James Wokabi.
Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa (centre) speaks during NTV’s Monday night sports show SportOn! with Benard Ndong (right) and James Wokabi on July 10, 2023.
“How I wish my parents were alive to witness my success!”
The 23-year-old Moraa lost her parents Tom Basweti and Margaret Otwori when she was two. Her father died within weeks after she had lost her mother. Other than her elder sister Nyaboke, she has a brother, Nicholas Mbegera, who is now 26. The last born in their family, Celestine Kemunto, was only six months old when her parents died.
“My mum was the first to die from an illness, and my dad followed weeks later after he was involved in an accident,” Moraa said.
“Whenever I recall what I have gone through with my siblings and what I have attained now, I am reminded that God is good and faithful.”
She could have taken after her mother who used to run.
“I used to run from home to school and back, and I won all the short distance races at school. I am told I just run like my late mum, who was a sprinter but there isn’t much about her running that is documented,” said Moraa.
Kenya's Mary Moraa celebrates winning and taking the gold medal in the women's 800m final athletics event at the Alexander Stadium, on day nine of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, central England, on August 6, 2022.
Moraa joined Ibacho High School in Kisii in 2015, and the institution’s principal, Zablon Oginda, enrolled her in the boarding section purely because of her athletics talent.
“I was worried about my younger sister but Oginda promised to take care of her and other siblings being a close relative,” said Moraa.
Oginda’s transfer to another school at the end of 2016 had Moraa, who was now in form two, worried about her athletics career. However, Oginda was wise enough to have Moraa transferred to Mogonga PAG Secondary School School in which the school’s Principal Haron Onchong'a was an athletics coach.
“Lady Luck smiled on me because the school valued sports talent in athletics, volleyball and football,” said Moraa, who won all the secondary school championships in all sprints races.
In 2017 after high school competition, Onchong’a picked Moraa among others to compete at a weekend meeting in Nairobi where she got to face the likes of Maximilla Imali in the 400m.
“I was leading with 150m to go before Imali defeated me as I settled for second place,” said Moraa. “I ran barefoot but Imali really guided me well and was ready to offer her running spikes but they were too big for me.”
Kenya's Mary Moraa (centre) celebrates winning and taking the gold medal, followed by second-placed England's Keely Hodgkinson (second right) and third-placed Scotland's Laura Muir (left) in the women's 800m final athletics event at the Alexander Stadium, on day nine of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, central England, on August 6, 2022.
Moraa went back to Kisii but was back in Nairobi for the second time in June for the national trials for the World Athletics Under-18 Championships held July 12 to 16, 2017. She won both the 200m and 400m to make Team Kenya for the world youth event.
Besides claiming silver for Kenya in 400m after losing in the heats in 200m, Moraa became a sensation when she passed the current world 400m hurdles champion Alison dos Santos from Brazil in the 4x400m mixed relays but Kenya still finished fourth.
Brazil still won gold in the race.
That marked the start of Moraa's international journey in athletics.
Mary Moraa competes in the women's 800m race during the Kenyan trials for the World Championships at Nyayo Stadium on July 7, 2023.
Even though she missed out on the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Moraa was selected for the 2018 World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland she finished fifth in the final of the 400m.
“I went back to school and after I had just completed my KCSE exams, my coach Sang and his Kenya Police counterpart Isaac Kirwa came to my school and took me away to train with them,” said Moraa.
The year 2019 was the season that redefined Moraa’s athletics career as he moved from 400m to 800m after the world championships in Doha.
After winning the Africa Under-20 400m title in Cote d'Ivoire in April, Moraa settled for second place behind Hellen Syombua at the trials for Africa Games in June but would claim her maiden national 400m title in August.
“Before the trials I attempted my first 800m race in Mumias in May posting 2:08.9 and decided it wasn’t my race,” said Moraa.
She was the only Kenyan to reach the final in 400m at the Africa Games in Rabat, clocking a 2019 Doha world championships qualifying time of 51.75 in the semis before finishing fourth in 51.97 in the final.
“In Doha, I was put in lane 9 in the semis and I took eternity to finish,” said Moraa, who finished ninth in the semis, failing to qualify for the final.
Moraa said that she was so disappointed to the extent that she was embarrassed to walk together with Hellen Obiri, who had retained her title in 5,000m with Beatrice Chepkeoch winning her maiden world title in 3,000m steeplechase.
“Chepkoech, who would later invite me for 800m training in her base in Kericho, told me that I can run well in 800m with Obiri also affirming it,” said Moraa. “That is when I made the move considering that it was also difficult to secure a management position in 400m.”
After training in Kericho for two months, Chepkoech paced Moraa for her first 800m race during the AK Meeting in Mumias where she finished second running 2:08.30.
“Chepkoech told me never to lose hope,” said Moraa, who ran 2:09.2 in Eldoret before winning the Nairobi Meet in 2:03.27 after 2:05.1 in the semi in March, 2020 before Covid-19 pandemic struck.
Moraa went full throttle in 800m in in 2021.
Sang put her to pace in 1,500m in Meeting Iberoamericano, in Spain on June 3, and she did well passing through 1,000m in 3:39, and five days later Moraa would compete at Paavo Nurmi Games, Turku, Finland where she blew away the field, clocking her first sub two minutes in 1:59.95.
Moraa would confirm her status when she won at Sollentuna Grand Prix on June 13 in Sweden improving her personal best to 1:59.25 to also hit the qualifying mark for the Tokyo Olympic Games where she reached the semis.
“I was training diligently after hitting three sub-two minutes time before the Tokyo Olympics,” said Moraa, who refers to 2022 as a breakout year for her.
Moraa ran her personal best of 1:58.93 when winning her first Diamond League race in Rabat on June 5 before improving it further with victory in 1:57.45 at the Kenyan Trials for World Championships and Commonwealth Games 2022, Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, on June 24.
Moraa would for the first time break the national 400m record with a time of 50.84 at the same trials.
She has broken it three times this year with the latest of 50.38 coming during the national trial for the World Athletics Championships on July 7.
Mary Moraa celebrates after winning the women's 400m race during the Kenyan trials for the World Championships at Nyayo Stadium on July 7, 2023.
"My coach told me not to put myself under pressure in Oregon. I was sure of making the final but not winning a medal," said Moraa, who shocked many when she settled for bronze in a personal best of 1:56.71.
"Then Sang gave me a challenge of coming up with my own strategy for the final in the Commonwealth Games," said Moraa, adding that she was tired having traveled for 18 hours from Oregon.
"After I fell behind despite hitting 55 seconds at the bell, I remembered the calls by the coach in training and that is why I had to hit the front at the homestraight to win," said Moraa, who thanked all those who have been part of her journey that has just started.
Moraa singled out role models Obiri and Chepkoech, and her coach Sang, and his wife Milcah Chemos, who is the 2013 world 3,000m steeplechase champion.
"While Obiri has been like a mother to me, my sister Sarah Nyaboke filled in the space left by mum," Moraa said of her 30-year-old sister. Her other siblings are Nicholas Mbegera,26 and Cellestine Kemunto, 20. Moraa is targeting nothing short of victory at the World Athletics.
"It's that middle position at the podium that I will be aiming at God willing," said Moraa, who also thanked her fans for their inspiring and encouraging messages.
