Eunice Sum ran the race of her life and improved her personal best by 2 seconds to capture gold in the women’s 800m at the 2013 World Athletics championships.

Following the withdrawal of veteran Janeth Jepkosegei, no one expected Kenya to win any medals. Sum’s personal best was not amongst the top six so no one expect her to medal, much less win the gold medal.

Everyone expected Maria Savinova of Russia who is the Olympic champion to run away with this one. Savinova is known as a master tactician. In the end it was Sum who got her tactics right. She trailed the leader Alyssa Montano who set the pace for 700m. At the 600m mark, Savinova made her move and tried to pass Sum around the bend. But Sum held off Savinova and forced the Russian to work extra hard around the bend. As a result, with 100m to go, Sum had more left in her tank than Savinova. She went on to hold off Savinova and pass Motano with 50m to go.

It was a masterful tactical display by the youthful Sum who is a former world junior champion. She won in a personal best of 1:57.38. It was the first ever medal for Sum at senior level.