Mary Moraa's fingers crossed on Kenya's chances of sealing Olympic qualification in the mixed relay

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Mary Moraa's fingers crossed on Kenya's chances of sealing Olympic qualification in the mixed relay

Mark Kinyanjui 13:39 - 16.06.2024

Kenya's mixed relay team is currently ranked sixth in the world, but have to wait till 30th June to confirm if they have sealed the 15th and 16th slot for the Olympic games in Paris this August.

World 800m champion Mary Moraa is hopeful that Kenya will be able to send a 4 by 100m relay mixed team to Paris for the upcoming Olympic games in August after helping set a national record at the Olympic games trials that took place at the Nyayo National Stadium on Saturday.

Moraa anchored the team as they set a national record of 3.11.88, which now puts them sixth in the world and well on course to fill the 15th and 16th slot for the Olympic games, having failed to seal automatic qualification at the World Relays in Bahamas in May.

The team also included Zablon Ekwam and Wiseman Were, who ran the first lap.

Speaking to the media after the race, Moraa expressed satisfaction at the team’s performance, revealing what they did in order to make sure they were strong enough to try and achieve qualification.

“I can say our performance was good considering the way we had planned for the race from the beginning of last week with my colleagues,” Moraa said.

“We have been targeting to run 3.11 or 3.10. Finally, we set a national record of 3.11 and I think we are 15th right now. We hope we will be in that bracket by 30th June, which is my prayer.”

Kenya is set to take part in the African Athletics Championships which will take place in Douala. Cameroon within the week, and Moraa hopes the team sent there will be able to do an even better job in order to better their chances of sealing qualification.

“We will work as a team. With our coach, we will try specialising on where we have not shappened. 

“We have a team that is going to the  African Games to run the 4 by 400m relay. Maybe they will be able to better our record and remove some microseconds to 3.10 which is my hope.”

On Friday, Moraa had already sealed qualification for the 800m alongside Lillian Odira.

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