Sum dusts off Beijing loss to aim for Olympics glory

After losing her world title last year, Eunice Sum has dusted herself for the season she is bidding to become the second Kenyan women 800m Olympics champion after Pamela Jelimo this summer.

Speaking after launching her campaign in front of a passionate home crowd at the sixth and final Athletics Kenya (AK) Track and Field Series meeting in Eldoret, the 2013 Moscow Worlds gold medallist declared the disappointment of ending as a bronze winner in her title defense in Beijing last year is urging her on to return to the middle step of the podium.

“It was good to have taken advantage of running in my home ground. I heard some of the cheering and some of my family was here watching.

“I cannot say I’m in top shape yet. I can say I’m in good shape to compete in the first two Diamond League races before I engage in my speed preparations for Rio and the rest of the season,” Sum who ran 2:03.20 for victory in the women’s two-lap final in the AK event on Saturday said.

The bronze winner from Beijing is preparing to launch her international season at the Doha and Rabat Diamond League races where she is seeking to win her third career Diamond Trophy after topping the global circuit competition last year.

The 27 year-old is out to follow in the steps of 2008 Beijing champion and 2012 World Indoor gold medallist, Pamela Jelimo by clinching the biggest crown on offer this season in Brazil.

“It will be a great dream for me to win the Olympics. Last year, I went in there as the favourite one but a championship is always a championship and the challenge can come from anywhere. My main target is to remain focus and train hard.

“The pressure is always there because the 800m is a challenging one, you don’t need to have a special time or to be the favourite one, you go there as any other athlete,” the African, Commonwealth and Continental Cup champion who swept all those honours in 2014 underscored.

Reflecting on losing her world title in China having come to the event at the back of imposing form, Sum said it had given her more reason to prepare better for the Olympics.

“I made some mistakes there although my body was not 100 percent when I was running in Beijing and I hope next time, I will be okay,” the 2012 African Championships silver medallist added.

Sum is a first cousin to 2007 World Men 800m champion and 2008 Olympics bronze winner, Alfred Kirwa Yego and is mentored by 2007 Women’s World champion, Janeth Jepkosgei who will sit out the season.

As curtains came down on the successful 2013 Moscow Worlds during the last track final of an enthralling programme, Sum seized – perhaps inadvertently- that defining moment to give the watching Russian public, joined by millions around the globe, a gripping anti-climax.

When she was done, the shock of the championships, a crestfallen home crowd jam-packed at the majestic Luzhniki Stadium, an eruption of spontaneous jubilation half a world away and disbelief anywhere else were left in her slipstream as Sum celebrated being a World champion.

In the mad minutes that followed her lifetime best performance of 1:57.38, Maria Savinova, Russia’s Olympic gold medallist and defending World 800m women champion who was in peak form, ready to win another home gold in front of a crowd which included many of her family and friends, was left to pick up the pieces despite her silver lining.

For Sum, that spectacular triumph proved to be the catalyst of her career take-off, as she added the IAAF Diamond League (DL) crown shortly after, before ascending to the Commonwealth and African titles besides holding on to her elite circuit crown in 2014.