World champ Eunice Sum raises a red flag over 800m

Eunice Sum (left), Betsy Saina (centre) and Mercy Cherono relax at the Mercure hotel in Paris on July 4, 2014 ahead of the Paris Diamond League that evening in France’s capital city. PHOTO | AYUMBA AYODI |

What you need to know:

  • Only two Kenyans appear in the top 50 world lead times this season
  • Sum, the Commonwealth and World Cup champion, said she feels lonely in races where she is always alone and it’s made worse when her mentor Janeth Jepkosgei isn’t competing.

IN PARIS

World 800m champion Eunice Sum has challenged Athletics Kenya, training camps and coaches in Kenya to help produced 800m women contestants.

Sum, the Commonwealth and World Cup champion, said she feels lonely in races where she is always alone and it’s made worse when her mentor Janeth Jepkosgei isn’t competing.

“Something really must be done because we are missing the four crucial spaces after me and Jepkosgei for major championship events.

“We have slept on our laurels for too long as a nation as no women are coming up for 800m races,” Sum said. “The authorities must really wake up because we are heading to times where we shall even miss qualifiers for the big events.”

Sum, who is also the Africa champion, said while Kenya is asleep, other nations like the United States of America are slowly producing young athletes in the two-lap race.

“Right now we only have three athletes who have made the qualifying time for the World Championships while the USA has not only several but mostly juniors who have made the cut,” noted Sum, the 2014 Diamond League Series winner.

Sum singled out the current season where she holds the world lead time of 1:57.82 while the next Kenyan is Jepkosgei, who is placed seventh in 1:59.37.

“There is no other Kenyan in the top 50 with little known Margaret Wambui coming in 55th in 2:01.32,” said Sum adding that the situation looks bad when USA has six athletes who have run two minutes this season led by the World junior champion Wilson Ajee, who has two times in top four.

Ajee pushed Sum to the line but finished second at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on May 30 in 1:57.87. Ajee would win in New York on June 13 in the absence of Sum in 1:58.83.

Sum pointed out Americans World bronze medallist, Brenda Martinez (1:59.06), Alysia Montano (1:59.1), Chanelle Price (1:59.39), Raevyn Rogers (1:59.71) and Molly Beckwith-Ludlow (1:59.81), who have run under two minutes this season.

Ajee is 20 while Rogers 18. Sum said the awful performance of Kenya at the 2015 World Relay Championships in Bahamas in May where the team finished last after winning silver the previous year must have sounded a warning to athletics authorities in the country. Price, Beckwith-Ludlow and Montano were part of the USA team that also had Maggie Vessey, that broke the world record in new times of 8:00.62. The USA team had won in 2013 in 8:01.58, beating Kenya who clocked an Africa record time of 8:04.28.

“If we didn’t learn from the two events then we shall never learn. But all is not lost and I also challenge my colleagues to step up their training. They should join me in the two-lap race,” said Sum.

Sum said that after competing in Paris she would go back home for the Kenya trials due next weekend.

before returning to Europe for the London Grand Prix on July 25 to 27. “I will then head back home for the National trials on July 31 to August 1,” said Sum, who is focusing on defending her world title she won in 2013 in Moscow with personal best 1:57.38.

Sum admitted that she is yet to pick the right form similar to the one she embraced ahead of the 2013 Moscow worlds.

“I might have picked four titles last season but I was in better shape in 2013 and there is where I am heading back. I hope to get there by the time the World Championships in on,” said Sum adding that she is in better shape than when she won in Shanghai and Eugene.

However, Sum cautioned that anything can happen at the World Championships. “We have the heats and the semi-finals where you can be in great shape but fail to qualify for the final,” said Sum. “The two-lap race is always open for anybody to win but I hope to be that person.”