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The Commonwealth champion has revealed why she does a celebratory jig after each race as she prepares for the 2023 World Championships.
Reigning Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa has earned the nickname the ‘dancing queen’ going by the victorious jig that has become her trademark every time she finishes a race.
Moraa first performed the dance when she won gold in 800m at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England after storming through to beat home favourite Keely Hodgkinson.
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07:48 - 08.07.2023
ATHLETICS Omanyala, Moraa, Chebet in action as National Trials enter final day
The relays will wrap up the two-day event.
Since then, it has been a tradition as witnessed at the Rabat and Lausanne Diamond Leagues as well as the Kip Keino Classic this year. She did the same when she set a new national record in 400m at the National Trials last weekend.
The world 800m bronze medalist says the victorious jig just happened by chance but the response she got after, encouraged her to stick to it
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17:00 - 07.07.2023
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The dancing queen revealed that the record was not in her plans and it was a surprise that she had broken it.
“It was my first ever gold (Commonwealth Games) at a major world event and I had not expected it. I just found myself dancing heading towards my coach,” Moraa told NTV’s Sport On, on Monday night.
“I kept dancing and cat walking on the track and people started laughing so when I came back home, I looked at the clip online and saw the positive comments from people. So I said, this will be my slogan at every race that I go to. When I finish, I must entertain people.
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08:50 - 01.07.2023
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Moraa clocked 1:57.43 to cross the finish line as Hodgkinson followed in 1:58.37.
“After my win in Birmingham, there is a musician from Kisii who composed a song in my honour, saying they believe in me and I am all they have. I listen to it all the time and remember it when I dance on the track.”
The jig has earned Moraa a huge following online and she is now among the most followed Kenyan athletes on TikTok which she now terms one of her favourite past times.
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At the World Championships, he will clash with some of the other 100m greats including defending champion Fred Kerley.
“I joined TikTok last year so I said every time I have spare time, I dance. Even nowadays after training, I do a small dance,” added Moraa, who has over 14,000 followers on TikTok, with American sprint sensation Sha’Carri Richardson and Jamaican veteran Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce among them.
Moraa also revealed how she is unfazed by stiff competition at next month’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary where she will come up against World and Olympic champion Athing Mu of the United States and Hodgkinson who beat her to gold and silver respectively in the 2022 edition.
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Omanyala, Africa's fastest man is poised to win Kenya the first 100m medal in athletics World Championships.
“I have not run with Athing Mu this season and she has not competed with anyone apart from running in the US when she run 1:58. Recently, she ran 1,500m and did 4:03,” Moraa said.
“My target at the World Championship is to get gold however difficult it may be. I don’t know which shape she (Mu) is in and she has not competed against me so she does not know where I have reached but on race day, everyone will be ready and the truth will be known.
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06:50 - 09.07.2023
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The marathon team had already been selected earlier and it includes Titus Kipruto and Rosemary Wanjiru among others.
“Keely Hodgkinson run her first race in Paris, I was not there but she did 1:55 and it was like a surprise to me. I told myself; ‘Why am I happy with 1:58 and she has done 1:55?’ I told my coach, we must get 1:54 this season so that I keep aiming higher.”
Moraa has been in fine form this season, winning all her races, and she looks set for a stab at World Championship gold, a medal that has eluded Kenya since Eunice Sum’s heroics in Moscow, Russia 10 years ago.
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