Edith Masai

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Edith Masai ( Edith Chewanjel Masai or Edith Chewangel Masai ; born April 4, 1967 in Chepkoya near Kapsakwony , Bungoma District ) is a former Kenyan long-distance runner .

Life

She started athletics in school when she started over 800 and 1500 meters . After school, she was accepted into the Kenyan prison service team because of her athletic achievements, but put her ambitions on hold when her son was born in 1990. Only after her divorce in 1999 did she return to high-performance sport. First she started in cross-country races in Kenya and came to Germany for some time in the summer of 2000, where she was taken under the wing of the athlete manager Dorothee Paulmann and also took part in cross-country races with good results.

In 2001 she qualified in Kenya in the elimination races for the cross-country championships and won the bronze medal there. This year she also had her first starts on the tartan track. She became the Kenyan champion over 5000 meters . At meetings in Europe, the still unknown runner caused a sensation when she beat Romanian Olympic champion Gabriela Szabo at the Golden League meeting in Oslo over 5000 meters . At the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton , she started weak from malaria and finished seventh over 5000 meters.

In the following years 2002, 2003 and 2004 she became the cross-country world champion over the short distance and won the bronze medal over 5000 meters at the World Championships 2003 in Paris / Saint-Denis . At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , she qualified for the final over 5000 meters, but did not finish this race.

In 2005 she decided not to defend her title at the World Cross Country Championships because of an ankle sprain. Instead, she switched to the marathon route and won the Hamburg marathon in 2:27:06 h on her debut . At the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 , she was fifth over 10,000 meters . In 2006 she won the Berlin half marathon with the course record of 1:07:16 h and became the African champion over 10,000 meters. In 2007 she was eighth in the marathon of the World Championships in Osaka . In 2008 she won the Singapore Marathon , in which she had finished second the year before.

Her numerous successes in road races include victories at the Kassel City Run 2001, the Trier New Year's Eve Run in 2002, the Tilburg Ladies Run 10 K and the Swiss Women's Run in 2006.

Edith Masai is 1.68 m tall, weighs 55 kg and lives in Nairobi . She used her prize money to buy a farm that her mother runs.

Personal bests

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Masai, Edith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Masai, Edith Chewanjel; Masai, Edith Chewangel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan long distance runner
DATE OF BIRTH April 4th 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Chepkoya , Kenya