- Moraa has qualified for the World Championships
- She is stepping up her preparations towards Oregon
- Moraa clinched bronze in Budapest last year
Commonwealth Games champion Mary Moraa will highlight the list of Kenyan athletes competing at the Silesia leg of the World Athletics Diamond League on Sunday evening. Moraa is looking to step up her preparations towards the World Championships in Hungary next month and the race in Silesia will be a brilliant opportunity to test herself.
“I feel ready and strong enough with the work I have put in this season. I have been training very well and injury free and I feel strong. I have also run the Diamond League really well mixing up the 400m and the 800m and that has helped me to maintain speed and endurance,” Moraa said.
In Silesia, a tough and competitive field will be what the 23-year-old needs to ensure she is in tip top form for the World Championships.
Among those lining up in the race include Jamaican Nataya Goule and former world champion, Ugandan Halima Nakaayi.
She knows that to beat a competitive field at the World Championships, she needs to prove herself against equally talented athletes in build-up.
“I know it will be very tough at the World Championships because every athlete has prepared well. My target there is to just go and fight for a medal. Whichever medal I get I will be thankful but I am not putting pressure on myself for anything,” Moraa noted.
Clinched bronze in Oregon
She clinched bronze in Oregon last year, and went on to clinch the Commonwealth Games medal in Birmingham, one that she says has given her the hunger to do well again.
Meanwhile, more Kenyans will be in action in Silesia. Lilian Kasait, who will be competing in the 5,000m at the World Championships will be stepping down for the 3,000m race, working on her speed, something which she says she wants to improve before Budapest.
“That is one of the things I have really been working on. I need to have a very strong finishing kick because most of the times that is where I lose the race,” Kasait said.
Also joining her in the race is former world junior champion Teresiah Gateri, whose failure to land a place in Team Kenya at the Trials will fuel her to do well. The Japan based athlete wasn’t successful at the trials, as she aimed a place in the 5,000m team.
Deep field in men’s steeple
In the men’s steeple, the usual Kenyan names will be lining up, led by Amos Serem, Amos Kirui, Benjamin Kigen, Leonard Bett and Abraham Kibiwott.
They will be coming up against another challenge with World and Olympic Champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco. The latter has been a thorn in the Kenyan flesh over the last two years, and the local batallion will be out to outmuscle him again.
Ethiopian Wale Getnet will be another man to watch out in the race.
In the men’s 1500m, the World Championship bound duo of Abel Kipsang and Reynold Kipkorir will be in line for action and joined by former world junior champion Vincent Keter. In the absence of the on-form Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Kenyan trio is expected to challenge for the win.
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