Mindset key for Chemutai
Peruth Chemutai
What you need to know:
Strong belief. National record holder Peruth Chemutai will hope to become the first Ugandan to reach the women’s steeplechase final at the Olympics in the early hours of Sunday.
The name Kenya is written all over the 3000m steeplechase event but Ugandan Dorcus Inzikuru claimed the first-ever women’s world title in 2005 in Helsinki, Finland.
Two years ago at the Doha World Championships in Qatar, Peruth Chemutai almost won Uganda’s second steeplechase medal but she fell short with a fifth place finish.
The coronavirus pandemic appeared to have muted her charge and now, she must put in a decent shift to achieve a greater height in the seven-and-a-half-lap race.
The 22-year-old will line-up as one of the contenders for Tokyo Olympics silverware when the Heats for the water-jump race in the early hours of Sunday at the National Stadium.
Owing to the Covid-19 lull, Chemutai posted 9:22.09 at the Doha Diamond League on May 28 as her season best but that was far from her best.
So she had to intensify training in Kapchorwa with coach Addy Ruiter. The Dutch man is impressed by her current state.
“Peruth is going well, already for a month, in training,” Ruiter said from Tokyo. “But in the races she was struggling this year. Hopefully, the right mind-set will be there on Sunday,” he added.
On her Olympic debut, Chemutai posted then a personal best of 9:31.03 in seventh place after Heat 1 but she did not advance to the final at the Rio 2016 Games.
Chemutai will mingle in the event with Kenyans led by in-form Hyvin Kiyeng, world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech and 2014 Commonwealth champion Purity Kirui.
There is world silver medallist American Emma Coburn, two-time European champion Germany Gesa-Felicitas Krause and the African Games’ champion Ethiopian Mekides Abebe, who set her country’s national record of 9:02.52 in Doha two months ago.
At a glance
Name: Peruth Chemutai
Born: Jul 10, 1999
Age: 22
Olympics Appearance: 2nd (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020)
Discipline: Athletics
Event: Women’s 3000m steeplechase
Personal Best: 9:07.94
Major Event(s): 2019 Doha Worlds (5th), 2018 Africa Senior Champs (5th), 2018 World U20 (2nd), 2017 London Worlds
Athletics
SUNDAY | 1 – 3:40am
Women: 3000m S’chase Heats
Peruth Chemutai – Heat 1
