World U20 champion Moraa aims to continue in cousin's footsteps

Before she took to the line for the women’s 800m final at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24, Sarah Moraa had the perfect person to ask for advice.

Her cousin, Mary, is the world 800m champion at senior level: a training partner, mentor and friend who has long shown her the way both on and off the track. They texted throughout the championships, and ahead of the final Mary told her 18-year-old cousin to “work hard and get gold for my country,” says Sarah.

She did just that.

The tactics she employed looked awfully familiar to anyone who’s followed top-level 800m running in recent years.

When the gun fired, Moraa shot to the front, utilising her sprinting background to outpace her rivals to 200m, passed in a swift 28.05. But once she’d got the lead, she then slowed it down, the field bunching behind her as a 31.83-second 200m took Moraa to halfway in 59.88. Her chief danger, Claudia Hollingsworth of Australia, who had the quickest PB in the field, was right on her shoulder as Moraa then began to shift through the gears again, the third 200m covered in 30.38.

She had everyone on the stretch by that point, and in the home straight both Hollingsworth and USA’s Sophia Gorriaran loomed up on her outside, trying to get past, but Moraa had something left, kicking on, drawing clear and hitting the line in 2:00.36 to become the world U20 champion.

“I’m so happy, so excited,” she said. “This is my first World Championship, I was not expecting to get the gold. I was expecting to just get to the final.”

Moraa’s journey to this point began at the age of 12, when she first took up the sport. Her parents had no background in athletics, and she juggled running with football and volleyball at school before giving it her full focus. Like her older cousin, she focused first on sprints, running 200m and 400m in her mid-teens.

In 2023, she switched her focus to 800m. “The intensity and concentration in 800m is high compared to 200m and 400m, but I love how I am scaling the ladder through the guidance of Mary,” she told Nation. “She has been such an inspiration.”

At the age of 17, she reached the semi-finals at last year’s Kenyan Championships but having finished her studies at Mogonga PAG Secondary School, she was able to give running her full-time focus. That extra commitment truly paid dividends in 2024. Moraa went into the year with her eyes on three major events: the African Championships, Olympics and World U20 Championships.

At the Kenyan Championships in May, she earned silver in 2:02.36 behind Lilian Odira, then broke two minutes for the first time to finish third at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, clocking 1:59.39, just shy of the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:59.30. From there, she went to the African Championships in Douala, Cameroon, winning gold in 2:00.27.

“I really wanted to get the (Olympic standard) but the track was slow and therefore not conducive,” she told Nation. “I am praying for a fast-paced race in the (Kenyan U20 Trials). I hope to hit the bell in 58 seconds.”

That latter event took place in the last week of June, meaning it marked her last chance to hit the Olympic standard, and while Moraa won the race impressively, she fell short of her time goal, clocking 2:00.01. It meant she had to watch the Games from afar, but on the plus side, she could look towards Lima with her full focus on emulating her cousin and becoming a global champion. 

Earlier this year, Mary told Nation that Sarah would “make it big in the coming years”, given what she’d witnessed in training, saying she loved her “passion, focus and determination”.

They both train under the guidance of coach Alex Sang. How does the young protegee match up to the 2023 world champion in workouts? “She is the best,” says Sarah. “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.”

Moraa was foot-perfect in both her heat and semifinal in Lima, coasting to victory in both, and in the final she adopted the same approach: taking command at the start and never relinquishing it. She hit the line about three metres clear of her rivals before dropping to her knees, bowing her head and giving thanks. She then rose and made a love heart signal to the camera before running to hug the Kenyan team coaches, draping herself in her national flag.

Missing out on the Olympics had been a big frustration, but Moraa will nonetheless walk away from her final year in the U20 ranks with two gold medals from major championships – showing the kind of class and tactical nous that has defined the career of her world-beating cousin.

And when asked what she wants to achieve in the future, the teenager sees no reason not to reach for the very highest goals.

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

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics