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Kisii Express had been expected to run the 400m on Friday but opted out of the next two events for tactical reasons
Commonwealth 800m champion Mary Moraa will not feature in the next two Diamond League meetings in Florence and Paris to focus on improving her speed and time.
The 22-year-old made her intentions of winning a World Championship medal clear following victory at the Rabat Diamond League last Sunday but will not be in Florence on Friday, having been scheduled to feature in the 400m, or Paris next week, as her coach works on the weak areas before featuring in the Lausanne meeting on June 30.
‘Kisii Express’ will, however, be available for the National Police Championship slated for June 7-9 in Nairobi which will form part of her tune up programme.
“Running two World Athletics Continental Gold Tour (Botswana Golden Grand Prix and Kip Keino Classic) races and one Diamond League race, winning all of them is enough at the moment for her outdoor outing,” Moraa’s coach Alex Sang told Nation.
Moraa clocked a season’s best 1:58.72 to win in Rabat ahead of Catriona Bisset of Australia (2:00.11) while Sage Hurta-Klecker of the United States completed the podium in 2:00.62.
She headed to the Morocco capital on the back of her victory at the Kip Keino Classic where she clocked a season best 1:58.83 to upstage a strong field while also getting her revenge against South African Prudence Sekgodiso, who beat her at the last minute to claim victory last year.
Moraa clocked 1:56.71 when she won bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, and those are the levels she is seeking to get at as she targets a medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August.
“It is our plan to run sub-1:56 in Monaco (July 21), God willing,” added Sang. “There is a lot we need to work on in training, especially the last 200m where we need the killer speed.”
Moraa had admitted that she had not fully hit her form after the Kip Keino Classic victory and the Diamond League meetings were set to give her a good picture of where she is at.
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