When former world 10,000m champion Stella Barsosio was involved in a road accident in May, her focus was constant as she defied the memories to win Sydney Marathon ran on Sunday in Australia.
Barsosio, who missed to compete at the Valencia 10km road race in Spain due to sustained injuries won the marathon 2:24.22 with a course record.
The runner, who finished second at Rotterdam marathon with personal best of 2:23.00 was involved in an accident while training with her husband Edwin Cheruiyot, Hillary Bett and Amos Bomori, who sustained major injured.
But as they were hit by an over speeding vehicle on 22nd May along Kapsabet Road in Nandi County hence denying her a chance to compete in Valencia, Barsosio was in social and good mood to win the heavily competed race.
Speaking on phone after winning the race in Sydney, Barsosio said it was a black day of their training but that is in the past as they focus in the future days.
“Today was a good day for me, winning a marathon. I wanted to improve on my time but am lucky to set the course record. I ran a good race on a hard course,” said Barsosio.
She added that she recovered very fast from the ordeal and made use of her training tactics to claim the title that was congested with big names.
“I had a good training that bore fruits on a hard course. My focus is to run better time in future,” added the 26-year-old.
She led 1-2 Kenyan podium finish with Josephine Chepkoech taking the second position in 2:26.43 as Ethiopia’s Tejitu Daba completed the podium timing 2:28.22.
It was also a course record for men as Felix Kiprotich won the men’s title in 2:09.49