NAIROBI, Kenya, June 1, 2025 – Kenyan sprinter Mercy Oketch says she has been working extra hard in the past one year to secure qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo.
Oketch says she has been building herself up by correcting on her weak areas.
“The past one year has all been about building myself. In the past, I used to start my races poorly and everyone used to point that out to me. I’ve worked on it and corrected it in addition to usual training programmes that I undertake,” the 22-year-old said.
Oketch booked her place on the plane to Tokyo after clocking a personal best (PB) and national record (NR) of 50.14 to win the women’s 400m at the Kip Keino Classic World Continental Tour at the Ulinzi Sports Complex on Saturday.
Uganda’s Leni Shida came second in a PB of 50.93 as another Kenyan, Mercy Chebet, also clocked a PB of 51.52 to finish third.
Saturday’s success was the latest in a glorious month for Oketch, who had already secured World Championships ticket courtesy of the 4x400m relay team.
She was part of a quartet — the others including David Sanayek, Brian Tinega and Chebet — who clocked 3:13.10 to bag bronze at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China.
Oketch says all these achievements are the result of pushing the limits in training.
“I do a lot of running…running beyond the 400m in which I specialise. Sometimes I run in the 150m, 200m or 100m and this has helped me improve a lot. I thank the organisers of today’s event because I think everything went well,” she said.
