She seems to have a problem handling the barriers and the water jumps. It may be her height, or the lack of it, for Kenyan steeplechaser Milcah Chemos Cheywa looks a bit awkward every time she is going over an obstacle.
She often attacks the barrier with both legs, losing rhythm and time, and when she goes for the water jump, there is a little stutter and she almost sinks into the water.
Surprisingly, this 26-year-old is the world’s fastest steeplechaser this year and the fourth fastest ever when she clocked 9:07.14 secs on her way to the Diamond League gold in Oslo last month.
And she is the hot favourite for the gold in London.
Newcomer
Chemos is virtually new to the steeplechase, an event which made its debut in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Four years ago, she was an 800m runner but when she failed in the Kenyan Olympic trials, finishing seventh and 12 secs behind the winner Pamela Jelimo, she decided to take up the 3000m steeplechase.
Chemos began running only after her marriage in 2005 and took it up seriously after joining the Kenya Police College in 2008. Her husband, middle distance runner Alex Sang, asked her to try running and she did, with the 800 and 1500.
Richard Mateelong, an Olympic bronze medallist, played a big role in Chemos switching to the steeplechase in 2009 when she was 23. She won her debut race and in just her sixth run in the event, she clocked a stunning 9:22.33. She also picked up a bronze at the Berlin world championships that year in 9:08.57s and a silver at the world athletics finals in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Chemos comes from a family of farmers. The diminutive Kenyan (163 cm) had a bumper crop on the track in 2010 and was on a four-race winning streak in the Diamond League and a little later, she claimed the Diamond Trophy. She also won the African title and the New Delhi Commonwealth Games crown that year and was the world leader with a 9:11.71 that came in Rome. Chemos had a clutch of Diamond League titles the next year but the gold eluded her at the world championships in Daegu where she could only get a bronze.
Elusive gold
Yet to win a world or Olympic title, London should offer her a chance to grab the yellow metal. Apart from Russian Yuliya Zaripova — who like the Kenyan ditched the 800 and moved to the steeplechase — Ethiopians Sofia Assefa and Hiwot Ayelew should also be in the Olympics field to make it a race to watch.
The Kenyans have dominated the men’s steeplechase at the Olympics but a Russian, Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, walked away with the gold in Beijing. Chemos has a chance to rewrite history.
