Nusra breaks national women's 100m hurdles record

Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) 100 metres champion Rukia Nusra has broken the national 100m hurdles record.

The 21-year-old Nusra tore the hurdles in 13.87 seconds to claim her maiden national 100m hurdles title at the Nyayo National Stadium on Friday.

“I am over the moon, it’s a great feeling and great morning for me…I had worked on this from last year where I had to cut my weight from 89 kg to 69 kg now. It wasn't easy,” said Nusra.

Nusra’s feat saw her erase the previous record of 13.99 set by Priscilla Tabunda in April last year at the National Athletics Championships at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

Nusra said she now hopes to qualify for the World Athletics Championships scheduled for August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary through the world ranking.

Alternatively, Rukia hopes to polish on her starts so as to strike the qualifying standards of 12.78 during the national trials for the world championships programmed from July 7 to 8 in Nairobi.   

“I really need to work extra hard in the coming week to lower my time by working on the starts for a better and super take off…I want my  rhythm to flow from the first to the last hurdle,” said Nusra.

Nusra beat Gladys Nguru from Kenya Prisons to second place in 14.79 as Veronica Chebet of Police clocked 14.84 for third.

It’s the Africa 400m hurdles bronze medallist Wiseman Were, who retained his 110 hurdles title, clocking 14.03 to win as KDF athletes swept all the podium places.   

Michael Musyoka and former national champion William Mbevi timed 14.31 and 13.65 to settle for silver and bronze respectively.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games champion race walk bronze medallist Emily Ngii retained her national 20km race walk title in 1:40:51. 

KDF’s Ngii, the Africa champion, beat Africa silver medallist Sylvia Kemboi, who timed 1:41:17 to second while Margaret Gati settled for third position in 1:49:03.

Ngii has appealed to Athletics Kenya to help her secure races outside the country so as to enable her to qualify for World Championships. The qualifying standard is 1:29:20.

“The course that we used today was tough and getting a qualification mark is a little bit tricky. For us to qualify also there has to be an international judge and we have to get support in the event,” said Ngii.

She competed at the World Championships in Oregon, USA where she finished a distant 30th before bagging a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in the women’s 10,000m race.

Gati, a form three student at Cheptonon High School in Nandi County and also the World Under-20 Championships finalist, on her part said that she was glad to have competed in the senior race and emerged third.

“Coming in third today is a milestone for me in my career and since I’m still in the learning process, I believe I will be able to do even better in the near future,” said Gati.