Two-lap specialist Mary Moraa to compete in 400m in Botswana Continental meeting

World 800m bronze medalist Mary Moraa, will be dropping down to the 400m race in the Botswana Continental Gold Tour meeting in Gaborone on Saturday 29.

The two-lap specialist, who is the national 400m record holder, will be seeking to refine her speed ahead of her 800m season and will race the one lap distance against Jamaica’s Olympic and world finalist Candice McLeod, USA’s Kyra Jefferson, and Botswana’s Naledi Lopang and Thompang Basele.

The Commonwealth champion will also team up with the men’s national 400m hurdles champion Wiseman Were, Boniface Mweresa and Naomi Chebet in the country’s quest of qualifying for the 4x400m mixed relay event at the World Athletics Championships set for August 19-27 in Budapest, Hungary.

Just like Moraa, reigning 100m Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala, who had already been confirmed for the 100m race, will team up with Samuel Imeta, Hesbon Ochieng and Steven Onyango in a bid to achieve qualification for the men’s 4x100m relay where the quartet will be aiming to push Kenya, currently ranked 18th in the world, to the top 16 that is the cut-off.

Kenya is placed 18th in the world with a time of 38.92 seconds attained from their semi-final performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.

The top 12 teams that competed at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA automatically qualified for the Budapest event.

They will be joined by the four other teams that will be ranked in top 16 in the world at the end of the qualifying period on July 31.

Turkey is currently placed 16th with a time of 38.74 while Nigeria is 17th 38.81 hence the Kenya side must strike a time below 38.74 and hope that no other country will go under by the end of qualifying period.

In the 100m, Omanyala, who holds the African record for the distance, will clash with world silver medalists Marvin Bracy and Kenny Bednarek.

World and Olympic 200m silver medalist Bednarek will step down from his usual specialist distance to take part in the 100m where he boasts a PB of 9.89.

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Local talent Letsile Tebogo, who is the world U20 100m record-holder, will also be out to triumph on home soil in the field that will also have Canada’s world 4x100m champion Aaron Brown.

Olympic 800m silver medalist Ferguson Rotich, 1,500m African champion Abel Kipsang and Cornelius Tuwei will compete in 800m with Were battling in 400m hurdles.