Kenya’s new sensation, Eunice Sum, proved that her gold medal at the World Athletics championship was no fluke. On Thursday she won the women’s 800m at the DN Galan Grand Prix in Stockolm Sweden.
The race had been billed as a contest between Sum and the 1500m gold medalist from Moscow, Abeba Aregawi. In the end however Aregawi was not a factor in the race.
It was a crazy race. The Pacesetter Yekaterina Kupina of Russia led the field through 400m in 57.12 . However after doing an excellent job in the first half of the race, she did a shoddy job in the second half of the race by impeding the runners and causing collisions at the 600m mark. When the confusion cleared, Sum had taken the lead with Alyssa Montano of the USA chasing.
It was an epic last 50m as Montano went neck and neck with Sum with Montano “pulling a Kemboi” by drifting all the way to the 5th lane. In the end, Sum edged Montano to finish in 1:58.84. Montano took second place in 1:58.96 ahead of Morocco’s Malika Akkaoui, who clocked 1:59.74, with Wilson settling for fourth in 1:59.96.
Aregawi was never at the front and finished sixth in 2:01.22, one place ahead of World 800m bronze medallist Brenda Martinez, who had suffered from a migraine the day before.
