Mary Moraa waits to compete during the Athletics Kenya trials to select the team for the World Championships at the Nyayo Stadium on September 13, 2019. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 30 – African junior champion Mary Moraa dug deep into her energy reserves to finish third and qualify for the women’s 400m semi-finals at the IAAF Woreld Championships in Doha on Monday evening.
Starting off on the outside lane, Moraa worked an extra shift to power home in third place and pick an automatic slot in the semi-finals, clocking 51.85 to edge out neutral athlete Polina Miller with a dip at the finish line.
Moraa was behind the pack heading into the home stretch, but she put in a spirited fight, galloping past the field and dipping in at third behind France’s Deborah Sananes who clocked 51.76.
The World Under-18 silver medalist has struggled through with a knee injury since the Kenyan trials in Nairobi and was a doubt to feature in the race, but wrestled off the fear to come through with an amazing performance.
Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo literally strolled around the one lap race to win in a time of 51.30 without even breaking a sweat or stretching her muscles to extensive use.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s other representative in the race Hellen Syombua, the national record holder could not keep up with the pace as she finished bottom of the pile in her heat after clocking 57.07.
The semi-final is scheduled for Tuesday at 8:05pm.
