Former world 3,000m steeplechase champion Milcah Chemos has announced her return to the track after being out of the limelight since 2013 when she won gold at the World athletics Championships in Moscow.
Chemos failed to defend her world 3000m steeplechase title at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing due to a spinal injury that has locked her out of action for the last two seasons. Chemos made her comeback early last month after clocking 33:42 to finish third at the Utrecht 10km run in Netherlands.
“I was very impressed by the performance on the road and now I am fully back on the track. I have been out for long,” Chemos, who is also the 2010 Commonwealth Games 3000m steeplechase champion, said. Early this year, she tried to prepare for the Rio Olympic Games but failed to make it to the trials.
“The injury prevented me from defending my title in Beijing and though I was well this season, I didn’t want to rush my recovery,” she said. With the next IAAF World Championships set for London next year, Chemos will be fighting for a slot to reclaim her title.
Compatriot Hyvin Kiyeng won the Beijing event to ensure the title was returned home. Chemos is the first Kenyan female athlete to win a world championships gold in 3000m steeplechase since the introduction of the event in 2005. “I am in a better place now to fight for London space next year. That is my focus for the season and I believe I will reclaim my title because I am in good shape now,” the athlete who trains in Kapsabet, Nandi County, told the Star. She said she will use IAAF Diamond League series and local Athletics Kenya events as a build-up for London 2017.
Chemos represented Kenya at the 2012 London Olympic Games but finished fourth after Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa defeated her by hundredths of a second.
However, this year she was awarded a bronze medal from 2012 London Olympics after Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) stripped off Russian Yuliya Zaripova her title (2012 London Olympics 3000m SC gold) for doping offence. The decision was reached at when CAS upheld an appeal by world governing body, IAAF over selective doping punishments imposed by the country’s anti-doping agency, (Rusada).
“I picked an injury while competing at the 2012 Olympics but it worsened in 2014. The doctor’s results showed an inflammation in my hamstring muscle. The second test Glasgow 2014 indicated that my nerves had pressurised the spinal cord and that forced me to undergo surgery in India. But I thank God I overcame them and I am now fit for competitions,” she added. She has bronze medals in her specialty from the 2009 Berlin and 2011 Daegu World Championships. Chemos began her athletic career as an 800m and 1500m runner before switching to steeplechase in the year 2009.
She quickly improved in the discipline posting a world championships qualifying time when she placed second during the trials. She won bronze in the 2009 Berlin World Championship, where won bronze. Chemos has also represented Kenya twice at the Commonwealth Games (2010 and 2014), winning gold and silver respectively.