[WATCH] Winfred Yavi in tears as she celebrates Olympics gold medals with her parents in Kenya

[WATCH] Winfred Yavi in tears as she celebrates Olympics gold medals with her parents in Kenya

Joel Omotto 16:00 - 21.08.2024

Bahrain’s Olympics champion Winfred Yavi was overcame by emotions as she returned to Kenya to celebrate her gold medal win with her parents.

Olympics 3,000m steeplechase champion Winfred Yavi had an emotional moment when she linked up with her parents upon returning to Kenya.

Yavi is in Kenya to celebrate her Olympics heroics with her family and when she met them at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, she could not hold her tears as her proud parents held her gold medal.

The Kenyan-born Bahraini is in her country of birth as she continues to enjoy her win and met her proud family members at the airport, posing for photos with her medal before travelling back home.

The 24-year-old was born in Makueni but moved to Bahrain when she was 15, becoming eligible to represent the Middle East nation in 2016, and made her debut at the 2017 World Championships where she managed eighth place in the 3,000m steeplechase.

She came of age at the 2023 World Championships when she held off the challenge of Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and Faith Cherotich to win gold before asserting her authority further at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

At the Olympics, Yavi summoned enough strength to floor defending champion Peruth Chemutai to win gold in an Olympics record time of 8:52.76 as the Ugandan settled for silver in 8:53.34 with Kenya’s Cherotich clinching bronze in 8:55.15.

The athlete has reaped handsomely from her Olympics win with the Bahrain government rewarding her with $419,000 (Ksh54 million) for clinching gold.

Yavi has already turned her attention on more accolades in the near future, having revealed her intentions of breaking the world record, currently held by Chepkoech.

“It is always good to break a record and that is also my target,” Yavi told Gulf News Daily in a recent interview.

“I will be graduating from event to event but next year, I will still do my steeplechase and 5,000m because we still have the Asian Games and I will keep on trusting the process.”

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