Inspired by Mary Moraa, Sarah Moraa now wants to beat achievements of her illustrious cousin

Sarah Moraa celebrates her gold medal victory at the 2024 World U20 Championships in Lima, Peru. Photo/World Athletics

Inspired by Mary Moraa, Sarah Moraa now wants to beat achievements of her illustrious cousin

Joel Omotto 20:50 - 20.09.2024

Sarah Moraa is now targeting much bigger accolades that are yet to even be achieved by her cousin Mary Moraa who has been her biggest inspiration and support system.

World U20 800m champion Sarah Moraa is keen to continue learning from her successful cousin Mary Moraa as she builds a career of her own.

Sarah won her second major title early this month when she ran a tactical race to claim gold at the World U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, adding onto a gold medal won at the African Championships.

The 20-year-old says all these would not have been possible if she was not training with her more illustrious cousin Mary who is her training mate.

“She is the best,” Sarah told World Athletics in regards to Mary. “But I work hard to be with her. She inspired me so much, with so many things. The way she does things really motivates me.”

Sarah and Mary came to prominence at the Kenyan Olympic trials in June when the senior Moraa pushed the youngster to the limit to ensure she was in the top three in the final.

However, Sarah failed to hit the Olympics qualifying mark, clocking 1:59.39 when the standard was 1:59.30, and she had to seek qualification at the Africa Athletics Championships in Doula, Cameroon.

She won gold but still fell short, clocking 2:00.01 to knock her out of Olympics. That disappointment was used as the fuel to drive her at the U20 Championships when she stormed to victory in a time of 2:00.36.

After tasting glory at the international level, Sarah is now hungry for more and wants to emulate and even beat the achievements of her cousin in the near future.

“I want to be the 800m world champion, Olympic champion, even to get the world record,” she added.

Those are big ambitions that even her cousin is yet to achieve but Sarah believes she is on the right trajectory.

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